poke. This life was
trying to John.

After a few days she grew more amiable and expressed sympathy with her
husband in his financial straits.

"I am going to economize," she declared. "I will take no heed what I
shall eat, nor what I shall drink, nor wherewithal I shall be clothed."

Again for the thousandth time he took heart. After all, Dorothe might
become a helpmate. She was so beautiful and so cheerful in her
pleasanter moods that he thought her a treasure. When he took his baby
on his knee and felt her soft, warm cheek against his own, he realized
that life might be endurable even in adversity.

One evening, as they talked over his financial troubles, he said:

"Our family has a fortune in Florida."

At the name of fortune, Mrs. Stevens' head became erect, and she was all
attention like a war-horse at the blast of a trumpet.

"If you have a fortune there, why don't you go and get it?" she asked.

"We would, I trow, did we know we could have it for the going," he made
answer.

"And wherefore can you not?"

"St. Augustine is under the Spanish rule, and we know not that they will
permit an Englishman even to inherit property there. My grandfather was
a Spaniard and died possessed of valuable property."

"Can you not get it? Can you not get it?" she asked.

"I do not know."

"Try."

"We have thought to try it."

His brother was sent to Florida, but failed, though assured by the
lawyers that they might in time recover it.

There is no business so unprofitable as waiting for dead men's money.
Fortune flies at pursuit and smiles on the indifferent.

The prospects of John Stevens were certainly at a low ebb, and he found
his affairs daily growing worse. Large consignments of tobacco sent to
England remained unpaid for, and he stood in danger of losing all. He
thought of making a voyage to London for the purpose of looking after
his accounts. John Stevens had never been away from his family, save in
the short campaign on the Severn, and he dreaded to leave home. He loved
his children and, despite her faults, he loved his wife. As he held his
baby in his arms and listened to her gentle crowing and heard the merry
prattle of his boy at play, he asked himself if he should ever see those
children again, were he to go away.

John had three friends in whom he reposed great confidence. They were
Drummond, Lawerence, and Cheeseman. One evening he met them at the home
of Drummond and, relating his condition,