e makes you
feel that you must live a bigger life still, that this is only the wide
porch to the great labor-house--it makes you want to do things. Well,
we've got to win the stake first," he added, with a laugh.

"The stake is a big one, Jim--bigger than you think."

"You and her and me--me that was in the gutter."

"What is the gutter, dadsie?" asked Nancy.

"The gutter--the gutter is where the dish-water goes, midget," he
answered, with a dry laugh.

"Oh, I don't think you'd like to be in the gutter," Nancy said, solemnly.

"You have to get used to it first, miss," answered Jim. Suddenly Sally
laid both hands on Jim's shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "You must
win the stake, Jim. Think--now!"

She laid a hand on the head of the child. He did not know that he was
playing for a certain five millions, perhaps fifty millions, of dollars.
She had never told him of his father's offer. He was fighting only for
salvation, for those he loved, for freedom. As they stood there, the
conviction had come upon her that they had come to the last battle-field,
that this journey which Jim now must take would decide all, would give
them perfect peace or lifelong pain. The shadow of battle was over them,
but he had no foreboding, no premonition; he had never been so full of
spirits and life.

To her adjuration Jim replied by burying his face in her golden hair, and
he whispered: "Say, I've done near four years, my girl. I think I'm all
right now--I think. This last six months, it's been easy--pretty fairly
easy."

"Four months more, only four months more--God be good to us!" she said,
with a little gasp.

If he held out for four months more, the first great stage in their
life-journey would be passed, the stake won.

"I saw a woman get an awful fall once," Jim said, suddenly. "Her bones
were broken in twelve places, and there wasn't a spot on her body without
injury. They set and fixed up every broken bone except one. It was split
down. They didn't dare perform the operation; she couldn't stand it. There
was a limit to pain, and she had reached the boundary. Two years went by,
and she got better every way, but inside her leg those broken pieces of
bone were rubbing against each other. She tried to avoid the inevitable
operation, but Nature said, 'You must do it, or die in the end.' She
yielded. Then came the long preparations for the operation. Her heart
shrank, her mind got tortured. She'd suffered too much. She pulle