d me I burned up his slippers."

"Does he whip you often?"

"No, this was the only time--so far. I spilled candy on his best hat,
which is enough to make any man mad; but being a Catt, he was _very_
mad. I haven't seen him since, because he is away on a trip, but when he
comes back I am going to tell him I am sorry I burned up his shoes. I
was just beginning to think maybe there was hopes of his being like Mr.
Carson yet when I made him mad. Now I suppose I will have to begin all
over again."

"Then you think your father is improving?"

"Why, you see, Dad has had a hard time of it. There have been so many
things to make him feel bad. When he was in college he got expelled
because of something dreadful another boy did, and then a man who was
working with him in the mines cheated him out of all his share, and
mamma died, and money has been hard to get and--well, he got cross."

"So he took his spite out on his children, eh? Who was the man who
cheated him?"

"I don't know, but Dad doesn't believe in friends any more. He says
there is no such thing as a true friend. Mr. Carson says that is because
the man he trusted 'betrayed his confidence'--those are his very words."

The bandaged figure in the invalid chair moved uneasily, and a silence
fell over the hospital room while he stared gloomily out into the fading
light, and she sat lost in her own thoughts. Suddenly he roused, and his
voice sounded sharp and curt as he said, "It is nearly night. Time you
were going home."

Tabitha's face crimsoned at his peremptory dismissal, and she bounced
out of her chair indignantly.

"You sent for me. I didn't come because I wanted to. Good-by."

She was gone before he recovered his breath, and never a word had passed
between them concerning the fire which had so nearly cost him his life,
though his purpose in sending for her was that he might thank her for
her bravery. He called after her, but she did not hear his voice, and
the door closed with an emphatic bang which told him plainer than words
how angry she was.

For a long time after she left him he lay quietly by the window in the
twilight, thinking over what she had told him and battling with himself;
but in the end his better nature conquered. The next day he went for his
walk, as Dr. Vane had suggested, and that was the last Silver Bow saw of
him for some time. Some folks thought he had met with foul play, others
that he had wandered too far for his strength and had