nty of fresh
air; he tubbed himself regularly. He never drank "alcoholic beverages
that act directly on the liver and stomach, drying up the blood, and
rendering every organ unfit for work." Pearl remembered the Band of
Hope manual. No, and it was not a cold. Colds do not make people groan
in the night--it was something else. Pearl wished her friend, Dr. Clay,
would come along. He would soon spot the trouble.

After dinner, of which Arthur ate scarcely a mouthful, as Pearl was
cleaning the knives, Mrs. Motherwell came into the kitchen with a hard
look on her face. She had just missed a two-dollar bill from her
satchel.

"Pearl," she said in a strained voice, "did you see a two-dollar bill
any place?"

"Yes, ma'am," Pearl answered quickly, "Mrs Francis paid ma with one
once for the washing, but I don't know where it might be now."

Mrs. Motherwell looked at Pearl keenly. It was not easy to believe that
that little girl would steal. Her heart was still tender after Polly's
death, she did not want to be hard on Pearl, but the money must be some
place.

"Pearl, I have lost a two-dollar bill. If you know anything about it I
want you to tell me," she said firmly.

"I don't know anything about it no more'n ye say ye had it and now
ye've lost it," Pearl answered calmly.

"Go up to your room and think about it," she said, avoiding Pearl's
gaze.

Pearl went up the narrow little steps with a heart that swelled with
indignation.

"Does she think I stole her dirty money, me that has money o' me own--a
thief is it she takes me for? Oh, wirra! wirra! and her an' me wuz
gittin' on so fine, too; and like as not this'll start the morgage and
the cancer on her again."

Pearl threw herself on the hot little bed, and sobbed out her
indignation and her homesickness. She could not put it off this time.
Catching sight of her grief-stricken face in the cracked looking glass
that hung at the head of the bed, she started up suddenly.

"What am I bleatin' for?" she said to herself, wiping her eyes on her
little patched apron. "Ye'd think to look at me that I'd been caught
stealin' the cat's milk"--she laughed through her tears--"I haven't
stolen anything and what for need I cry? The dear Lord will get me out
of this just as nate as He bruk the windy for me!"

She took her knitting out of the bird-cage and began to knit at full
speed.

"Danny me man, it is a good thing for ye that the shaddah of suspicion
is on yer sister Pearlie