y comfort in my meals,
thinking of that awful black bread the poor children starve rather than
eat; and, Tilly, they ain't so dirty as some folks think! I read in a
magazine how they have GOT to bathe twice a week by their religion; and
there's a bath-house in every village. Tilly, do you know how much money
they've raised here?"

"Over three thousand. This town is the greatest town for giving--give
to the cholera down South, give to Johnstown, give to Grinnell, give to
cyclones, give to fires. _The Freeman_ always starts up a subscription,
and Mr. Bayard runs the thing, and Mr. Lossing always gives. Mother,
I tell you HE makes them hustle when he takes hold. He's the chairman
here, and he has township chairmen appointed for every township. He's
so popular they start in to oblige him, and then, someway, he makes them
all interested. I must tell you of a funny letter he had to-day from
a Captain Ferguson, out at Baxter. He's a rich farmer with lots of
influence and a great worker, Mr. Lossing says. But this is 'most word
for word what he wrote: 'Dear Sir: I am sorry for the Russians, but my
wife is down with the la grippe, and I can't get a hired girl; so I have
to stay with her. If you'll get me a hired girl, I'll get you a lot of
money for the Russians.'"

"Did he git a girl? I mean Mr. Lossing."

"No, ma'am. He said he'd try if it was the city, but it was easier
finding gold-mines than girls that would go into the country. See here,
I'm forgetting your presents. Mother, you look real dragged and--queer!"

"It's nothing; jist a thought kinder struck me 'bout--'bout that girl."

Tilly was sorting out the parcels and explaining them; at the end of her
task her mind harked back to an old grievance. "Mother," said she, "I've
been thinking for a long time, and I've made up my mind."

"Yes, dearie." Mrs. Louder's eyes grew troubled. She knew something of
the quality of Tilly's mind, which resembled her father's in a peculiar
immobility. Once let her decision run into any mould (be it whatsoever
it might), and let it stiffen, there was no chance, any more than with
other iron things, of its bending.

"Positively I could hardly get up the stairs today," said Tilly--she was
putting her jacket and hat away in her orderly fashion; of necessity
her back was to Mrs. Louder--"there was such a raft of people wanting to
send stuff and messages to you. You are just working yourself to death;
and, mother, I am convinced we have _