that the ever-vigilant Mrs. Gray might discover their cherished secret.

"Be brave, dearie," grandpa would sometimes whisper, "the very first
chance, you know!" Then Rosa's pensive face would light up with a smile
angelic, reflecting some of the very beauty itself of the land of which
they were so earnestly thinking.

One Thursday afternoon, just as Mrs. Gray was beginning to walk again,
the postman stopped with a letter, a rare occurrence.

"Land sakes, who can it be from?" she exclaimed, scrutinizing the
envelope quite long enough to have read the letter through.

"I'd like to awful well," at last she soliloquized, "but don't 'spose
it'd be safe to leave grandpa and Rosa here alone. No tellin' what
they'd be up to. There ain't many that'd be as self-sacrificin' as I am,
and keep an old man that ain't got a drop of your own blood, then take
in as good as a street waif, too. If it wuzn't fer them, I'd do it, I
jest would!"

Rosa's curiosity was aroused, but experience had taught her the futility
of asking questions.

"Rosa," commanded the speaker, "bring me that tin can up there on the
shelf.

"I guess I could manage the streetcar fare," she announced a few
minutes later, counting over several times Rosa's earnings in pennies,
nickels and dimes.

"My old neighbor over on the south side wants me to come tomorrow and
stay till Monday. Bein' that I've had it so awful hard, I jest guess
I'll do it, and you can git along the best way you can. Let me see: I'll
go tomorrow afternoon, and be gone all day Saturday and Sunday and till
late Monday afternoon. I'll leave you fifteen cents apiece to live on,
and I guess you won't starve."

Instinctively grandpa and Rosa cast a glance at each other. At last
their opportunity had come, and a better one by far than for which they
had dared to hope!

The time intervening between the reception of the letter and her
departure, Mrs. Gray spent mostly in giving directions to her two
charges, as she delighted to call them.

After having gone down the first flight of stairs, she called back:

"Rosa, I'll lick you sure if you git another speck of grease on that
there floor, while I'm gone."

But Rosa heeded not. Tomorrow she and grandpa would start for the
beautiful land and mother, for Jesus had paid all the fare.

[Illustration]

V.

THE WAY SOUGHT.

Early the next morning Rosa and grandpa were up, eagerly preparing for
the events of the day, their every motio