e coal stove with a bright fire in
it, and at the back of the shop, at the top of two steps, was a glass
door partly open, through which he saw a small room, with a red carpet
on the floor, and a little table apparently set for a meal.

Mr. Tolman looked at the knives when the old lady showed them to him,
and after a good deal of consideration he selected one which he thought
would be a good knife to give to a boy. Then he looked over some
things in the way of paper-cutters, whist-markers, and such small
matters, which were in a glass case on the counter. And while he
looked at them he talked to the old lady.

She was a friendly, sociable body, very glad to have any one to talk
to, and so it was not at all difficult for Mr. Tolman, by some general
remarks, to draw from her a great many points about herself and her
shop. She was a widow, with a son who, from her remarks, must have
been forty years old. He was connected with a mercantile
establishment, and they had lived here for a long time. While her son
was a salesman, and came home every evening, this was very pleasant.
But after he became a commercial traveller, and was away from the city
for months at a time, she did not like it at all. It was very lonely
for her.

Mr. Tolman's heart rose within him, but he did not interrupt her.

"If I could do it," said she, "I would give up this place, and go and
live with my sister in the country. It would be better for both of us,
and Henry could come there just as well as here when he gets back from
his trips."

"Why don't you sell out?" asked Mr. Tolman, a little fearfully, for he
began to think that all this was too easy sailing to be entirely safe.

"That would not be easy," said she, with a smile. "It might be a long
time before we could find any one who would want to take the place. We
have a fair trade in the store, but it isn't what it used to be when
times were better. And the library is falling off, too. Most of the
books are getting pretty old, and it don't pay to spend much money for
new ones now."

"The library!" said Mr. Tolman. "Have you a library?"

"Oh, yes," replied the old lady. "I've had a circulating library here
for nearly fifteen years. There it is on those two upper shelves
behind you."

Mr. Tolman turned, and beheld two long rows of books in brown-paper
covers, with a short step-ladder, standing near the door of the inner
room, by which these shelves might be reached. This plea