it was hers--all of it. Not to spend, but to _make money out of_.
Then her mother's words of warning rang clear: "Worse than a ghost, my
child!" Should she--could she take it? She turned to lay it in a drawer
until she could hand it back to him and her eyes fell upon the poster
framed in by the square of her window. She stopped and shut the drawer.
Was she never to have her chance? Would the treadmill never end? Would
the dear mother's head never be lifted? Folding the check carefully,
she loosened the top button of her dress and pushed it inside. There it
burned like a hot coal.

*****

That night, after putting her mother to bed, she pinned a shawl over her
head, threw her mother's cloak about her shoulders, sneaked into Maria's
house, and crept up into her friend's room like a burglar. What was to
be done must be done quickly, but intelligently.

"I've got some money," she exclaimed to the astonished girl who, half
undressed, sat writing at her table. (It was after nine o'clock--an
unheard-of hour for visiting.) "How much stock can I buy for two hundred
dollars?" and she shook out the check, keeping her finger over the
signature.

"Twenty shares," answered Maria.

"How do I get it?"

"Send the money to Keep & Co. Oh, you got a check! Well, put 'Keep &
Co.' on--here, I'll do it, and you sign your name underneath. And I'll
write 'em a letter and tell 'em I helped sell it to you. Oh, ain't I
glad, Ab. You must be getting awful big pay to have saved all that. Wish
I--"

"How long before I know?" She had not much time to talk--her mother
might wake and call her.

"They'll telephone you. You got a long-distance, ain't you, in the
office? Yes, I seen it."

Abbie took the name of the senior partner, replaced the check, and was
by her own fire again. The mother hadn't stirred.

All the next day she waited for the rattle of the bell. At three o'clock
she sprang to the 'phone.

"This Miss Todd--postmistress?"

"Yes."

"Got your check--bought you twenty Rock Creek at ten---mail you
certificate to-morrow."

The following morning the certificate took the place of the
check--pinned tight. She could feel it crinkle when she walked. All
that day she moved about her office like one dazed. There was no
exaltation--no thrill of triumph. A dull, undefined terror took
possession of her. What if the stock went down in price and she couldn't
pay back the money? Of whom, then, could she borrow? Repay Hiram she
must and