ay came,
and brought no allowance. A letter of remonstrance was despatched, and,
for the first time in my experience, remained unanswered. A cablegram
was more effectual; for it brought me at least a promise of attention.
"Will write at once," my father telegraphed; but I waited long for his
letter. I was puzzled, angry, and alarmed; but, thanks to my previous
thrift, I cannot say that I was ever practically embarrassed. The
embarrassment, the distress, the agony, were all for my unhappy father
at home in Muskegon, struggling for life and fortune against untoward
chances, returning at night, from a day of ill-starred shifts and
ventures, to read and perhaps to weep over that last harsh letter from
his only child, to which he lacked the courage to reply.

Nearly three months after time, and when my economies were beginning to
run low, I received at last a letter with the customary bills of
exchange.

"My dearest boy," it ran, "I believe, in the press of anxious business,
your letters, and even your allowance, have been somewhile neglected.
You must try to forgive your poor old dad, for he has had a trying time;
and now when it is over, the doctor wants me to take my shot-gun and go
to the Adirondacks for a change. You must not fancy I am sick, only
over-driven and under the weather. Many of our foremost operators have
gone down: John T. M'Brady skipped to Canada with a trunkful of boodle;
Billy Sandwith, Charlie Downs, Joe Kaiser, and many others of our
leading men in this city bit the dust. But Big Head Dodd has again
weathered the blizzard, and I think I have fixed things so that we may
be richer than ever before autumn.

"Now I will tell you, my dear, what I propose. You say you are well
advanced with your first statue; start in manfully and finish it, and if
your teacher--I can never remember how to spell his name--will send me a
certificate that it is up to market standard, you shall have ten
thousand dollars to do what you like with, either at home or in Paris. I
suggest, since you say the facilities for work are so much greater in
that city, you would do well to buy or build a little home; and the
first thing you know, your dad will be dropping in for a luncheon.
Indeed, I would come now--for I am beginning to grow old, and I long to
see my dear boy,--but there are still some operations that want watching
and nursing. Tell your friend Mr. Pinkerton that I read his letters
every week; and though I have looked in