ger. But it will be pleasant to look
forrard to a snug harbor bymeby. I feel a sight better just hearin'
tell about it." He certainly looked so, faint as the hope was; for the
melancholy eyes brightened as if they already saw a happier refuge in
the future than almshouse, hospital, or grave, and, when he trudged
away upon my errand, he went as briskly as if every step took him
nearer to the promised home.

After that day it was all up with Bob, for I told my neighbors Joe's
story, and we kept him trotting busily, adding little gifts, and
taking the sort of interest in him that comforted the lonely fellow,
and made him feel that he had not outlived his usefulness. I never
looked out when he was at his post that he did not smile back at me; I
never passed him in the street that the red cap was not touched with a
military flourish; and, when any of us beckoned to him, no twinge of
rheumatism was too sharp to keep him from hurrying to do our errands,
as if he had Mercury's winged feet.

Now and then he came in for a chat, and always asked how the Soldiers'
Home was prospering; expressing his opinion that "Boston was the
charitablest city under the sun, and he was sure he and his mates
would be took care of somehow."

When we parted in the spring, I told him things looked hopeful, bade
him be ready for a good long rest as soon as the hospitable doors were
open, and left him nodding cheerfully.

IV

But in the autumn I looked in vain for Joe. The slate was in its old
place, and a messenger came and went on his beat; but a strange face
was under the red cap, and this man had two arms and one eye. I asked
for Collins, but the new-comer had only a vague idea that he was dead;
and the same answer was given me at headquarters, though none of the
busy people seemed to know when or where he died. So I mourned for
Joe, and felt that it was very hard he could not have lived to enjoy
the promised refuge; for, relying upon the charity that never fails,
the Home was an actual fact now, just beginning its beneficent career.
People were waking up to this duty, money was coming in, meetings were
being held, and already a few poor fellows were in the refuge, feeling
themselves no longer paupers, but invalid soldiers honorably supported
by the State they had served. Talking it over one day with a friend,
who spent her life working for the Associated Charities, she said,--

"By the way, there is a man boarding with one of my poor wo