ll way, living his own life now
which left Ruth and me to ourselves once more. She used to go over for
me all the details of his day from the time she took him up in the
morning until she tucked him away in bed again at night and then there
would come a pause. It seemed as though there ought to be something
more, but there wasn't. The next few months it seemed almost as though
she was waiting. For what, I didn't know and yet I too felt there was
a lapse in our lives. I never loved her more. There was never a time
when she was so truly my wife and yet in our combined lives there was
something lacking. After a while I began to notice a wistful
expression in her eyes. It always came after she had said,

"So Dicky said, 'God bless father and mother,' and then he went to
sleep."

Then one night it dawned on me. Hers was the same heart hunger that
had been eating at me. Dick was a boy now and there was no baby to
take his place. But, good Lord, as it was I hadn't been able to save a
dollar. I knew that we were simply holding on tight and drifting. The
boat was loaded to the gunwales even now. And yet that expression in
her eyes had a right to be answered. But I couldn't answer it. I
didn't dare open my mouth. I didn't dare speak even one night when she
said,

"He's all we have, Billy--just one."

I gripped her hand and sat staring into the little coal hod fireplace
which we didn't light more than once a month now. Even as I watched
the flames I saw them licking up pennies.

Just one! And I too wanted a houseful like Dick.

I had to see that look night after night and I had to go to town
knowing I was leaving her all alone with the one away at school. And
what a mother she was! She ought to have had a baby by her side all
the time.

As the one grew, his expenses increased. The only way to meet them was
by cutting down our own expenses still more. I cut out smoking and
made my old clothes do an extra year. Ruth spent half her time in
bargain hunting and saved still more by taking it out of herself. Poor
little woman, she worked harder for a quarter than I did and I was
working harder for that sum than I used to work for a dollar. But we
were not alone in the struggle. As we came to know more about the
people in that group of snug little houses we knew that the same grim
fight was going on in all of them. Some of them were not so lucky as
we and ran into debt while a few of them were luckier and were helped
out with le