or all that had been hinted at.

* * * * *

Monday John spent the day looking for a girl to take Hepsie's place. Tired
and discouraged, he came home about four o'clock in the afternoon.

"Could you get me a bite to eat?" he asked Elizabeth as he came in. "I
haven't had a bite since breakfast."

Elizabeth laid the baby on the bed, and turned patiently toward the
kitchen. An hour was consumed in getting the extra meal and doing the
dishes afterward, and then it was time to begin the regular supper for the
rest of the family. When John found that she had thrown herself down on
the bed to nurse the baby instead of coming to the table for her supper,
he insisted that she at least come and pour the tea, and when she sat
unresistant through the meal, but could not eat, he sent her to bed and
helped his mother wash the supper dishes without complaint. The next
morning, however, he hailed her forth to assist with the half-past four
o'clock breakfast relentlessly, unaware that she had spent a weary and
sleepless night.

"Are you going to look for a girl to-day?" she asked as he was leaving the
house after the breakfast was eaten.

"Oh! I suppose so, but I haven't much hopes of getting one," he answered
impatiently. Then seeing the tears in her eyes at the thought of the
washing waiting to be done, he kissed her tenderly. "I'll do the best I
can, dear; I know you're tired."

"Well, the next one I get I hope mother 'll let me manage her. If Hepsie
wouldn't stand her ways of talking about things none of the rest will."
After a moment's reflection she added: "I cannot do all this work myself.
I'm so tired I'm ready to die."

John slipped his arm about her and said earnestly:

"I'll do all I can to help you with the dinner dishes, but you are not to
say one word to mother about this."

It was gently put, but authoritative.

"Then you needn't look for one at all," she said sharply.

John's arm fell from about her and he looked at her in cold astonishment.

"I don't care," she insisted. "I can't keep a girl and have mother looking
over every piece of washing that is hung on the line."

"Mother kept girls a long time in her own house," he answered, taking
offence at once.

"I don't care; she dealt with a different kind of girls." Then with a
sudden illumination, she added: "She didn't have such quantities of work
to do, either. If we go on this way we'll have to have help and ke