home, only my youngest; he comes a
visiting sometimes, and if he should come and find a stranger sleeping
in his bed, why, he'd feel kind of homesick, I'm afraid, and I want Jim
to feel that this is the best home that ever was, I do."

Tode bestowed a very searching look on the earnest little old woman in
answer to this, and then spoke rapidly:

"I shouldn't wonder one bit if you was our Jim's mother down at the
Euclid House--that's where I lived, and that's where he lives, only he
don't sleep there--he sleeps with his brother Rick, down at the livery
stable. Now, ain't they your two boys?"

"They are so!" the old lady answered, speaking as eagerly as he had
done.

"And so you know them! Well, now, _don't_ things work around queer?"
Then she shut the door and locked it, and came over to Tode so close
that her cap frills almost touched his curly head, before she whispered
her next sentence:

"Now, I know you will tell me just the truth. Do them two boys of mine
touch the bottles for themselves?"

How gently and pitifully Tode answered the poor mother! "I guess they
do, a little--all the fellows do, except just me--they don't think it's
any harm."

"I knew it, I knew it!" she said, pitifully. "Their father would, and
_they_ will."

Then, after a moment, she rallied.

"But I don't give up hope for 'em, not a bit, and I ain't going to so
long as I can pray for 'em. Now I'll tell you what we'll do. The Lord
has sent you to help me, I do guess--I asked him if I couldn't have
somebody just to give me a lift with them. You'll have Jim's room, and
when he comes you'll be just nice and comfortable together, seeing you
know each other. Rick, he never comes home for all night, 'cause he
can't get away. And then you'll help me keep an eye on Jim, and say a
word to him now and then when you can, and pray for him every single
day--will you now?"

So when the night closed in, Tode's bundle was unpacked, and his clothes
hung on Jim's nails, and once again he had a home.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIII.

TODE'S REAL ESTATE.

By next evening business had fairly commenced. The first day's sales
were encouraging in the extreme, the more so that Tode had rescued two
boys from the vortex on his left, and persuaded them into taking a cup
of his excellent coffee instead of something stronger. Among the
accomplishments that he acquired at the Euclid House was the art of
making delicious coffee, an art which bid fair to