han the old man, and she used to have to get some
of the neighbours to come in and sit on his head while she tuk his
boots off, and she'd have clean give up if it hadn't been for her
little boy, like Danny there; but if I ever thought that our Danny
would go back on us the way that young Jim went back on his ma, I
don't know how I'd stand it."

"What did he do, Pearlie?" Mary asked.

"Soon as he got big enough nothin' would do him but he'd drink too,
and smoke cigarettes and stay out late, and one day stole somethin',
and had to scoot, and she says so pitiful:

'I've never seen my poor lost boy
From that dark day to this.'

Then the poorwoman goes to the poorhouse, mind you!"

"God help us!" cried Mrs. Watson, "did it come to that?"

"Yes, Ma; but what d'ye think? One day a finelookin' man came in to
see all the old folks, silk hat and kid gloves on him and all that,
and this poor woman got talkin' to him, and didn't she up and tell
him the whole story, same as I'm tellin' you, only far more pitiful,
and sure didn't she end up by beggin' him to be kind to her poor
Jimmy if he ever comes across him; and tellin' him how she always
prays for him and knows he'll be saved yet. She never held it against
the young scamp that he never writ back even the scratch of a pen,
just as full of excuses for him as Ma would be if it was one of you
lads," and Pearl's voice quivered a little.

"But sure, now, it is wonderful how things turn out!" Pearlie went
on, after she had wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her checked apron,
"for wasn't this Jim all the time forninst her, and her not knowin'
it, and didn't he grab her in his arms and beg her to forgive him;
and he cried and she cried, and then he took her away with him, and
she had a good time at last."

The next day Pearl borrowed the book from Maudie Ducker and learned
the words, and for several evenings recited them to her admiring and
tearful family. Then, to make it more interesting, Pearl let the
young Watsons act it. Jimmy spoke right up and says he: "I bo'r to be
the old man, and come home drunk," but as this was the star part,
Jimmy had to let Tommy and Billy have it sometimes.

The first scene was the father's spectacular homecoming. The next
scene was the wedding, and Jimmy made the speech after Pearl had
coached him, and in most feeling terms he warned his son-in-law
against the flowing bowl, and told what a good girl his little Nancy
was, and what a bad pa he