ought to
be nearer his school."

"But my practice is all in this neighborhood, and it's a most excellent
neighborhood--permanent: the people own their houses. To go into a new
neighborhood would be like going into a new city. I should have to build
up a practice with new people."

Dr. Lively saw the agent, and agreed to pay five thousand dollars in
cash for the house, and five hundred in one year, at six per cent. "Now,
my dear," he said to his wife, "we've got to save that five hundred
dollars this year."

"Don't I know that? I suppose, now, I shall have to hear that
ding-donged at me for the next twelve months. You'll fling it at me
every time I ask for change. I dare say before the year is out I shall
repent in sackcloth and ashes that we ever bought the house. Save it! Of
course I've got to save it. It never enters your head that it's possible
for you to save anything."

"Who saved the five thousand?" asked the doctor quietly.

"For pity's sake, how could I save it if you never gave it to me? I
didn't even know you'd made it. I'm sure my dress has been shabby enough
to suit the stingiest mortal in existence. There isn't a woman in our
church that dresses plainer than I do."

"As you are going out," said the doctor, changing the subject, "you can
call at the savings bank and get the money: the agent will be here in
the morning with the papers."

Mrs. Lively came home in due time and displayed ten five-hundred-dollar
bills. "They offered to give me a cheque," she said, "but these bills
look so much richer."

"But a cheque is safer in case of accident," the doctor suggested.

"What in the world's going to happen to-night? You are such a croaker,
always anticipating trouble!"

"Oh no; I don't anticipate a fire or a robbery before morning," the
doctor said.

That night, when Mrs. Lively went to bed, she took the doctor's purse
from his pocket and put it under her pillow. All night long she was
dreaming about those bills. The next morning, when she woke, her first
act was to look for the purse. There it was, just where she had placed
it. She returned it to her husband's pocket, and then dressed without
waking him, for he had been called up that night to see a patient.

Very promptly at eight o'clock the agent for the house presented himself
in Dr. Lively's office. Who ever knew an agent behind time when a sale
was to be consummated?

Dr. Lively looked over the papers carefully, and, being satisfied,
ope