of the damage done by the
delay, and made him comfortable by urging him to stay on after he was
really ready to go home. So successful was she that he forgot for the time
he was in her presence that all was not in his favour, and she was able to
induce him to give all that he was able to give toward the improvements
she suggested in his daughter's wearing apparel. Elizabeth was surprised
at the ready response to demands made upon his purse, but here again Mrs.
Hornby left a sting, wholly unintended and at the time not recognized by
Mr. Farnshaw himself, but remembered by him later and never forgotten
after it was once fixed firmly in his mind. Aunt Susan, concerned for the
entrance of the child into the company of those of her own age, pointed
out to her father the gayly dressed girls of Elizabeth's age, and
suggested that a new coat would be an absolute necessity. Mr. Farnshaw had
given Mrs. Hornby all the money he had with him except four dollars, and
his wife had given him a list of groceries to be purchased in the city. It
rather pleased him to use the money toward his daughter's adornment and it
tickled his pride as well to give his last cent toward her education. Mrs.
Hornby looked at the money he placed in her hand, and hesitated visibly.
Josiah Farnshaw stiffened at her manner. Aunt Susan hated to ask for more,
but this would not buy the girl a coat that she could wear in Topeka!

"You are just as good as you can be about this, Mr. Farnshaw, but--but a
coat like the other girls have will cost at least eight or ten dollars."
She felt his attitude.

The amount named took the man's breath. He had given all he had and yet
this woman, whom he had begun to like again, was not satisfied!

"A man can't do no more'n he can, an' that's th' last red cent I've got,"
he replied, humiliated at the necessity of the confession.

"Oh! I'm so sorry," Aunt Susan exclaimed, really so at having forced the
statement. She sat with her brows knit in serious thought a moment, and a
light began to break in upon her. Elizabeth had to have that wrap somehow
and here was a way right before her. She remembered a long cape she had
noticed going down the street that very morning.

"I guess we can make it do," she said hesitantly. She was thinking out her
plan and spoke slowly. "We'll just make a cloak ourselves. We can do it."

Josiah Farnshaw left the next day for home, in a good humour with himself
and his munificence, but on the way ho