furniture, except the widow, who longed for it so earnestly that the
power of speech seemed to go from her.

'George,' she gasped, as she pulled her boy's sleeve, 'say you'll give a
shilling. I can't make him hear me.'

'A shilling!' shouted out the boy, and the auctioneer turned in his
direction at once.

'A shilling for a rosewood chair, upholstered in best damask!' he said,
in a voice of scorn. 'And this in the respectable city of
Wolverhampton!'

The spectators laughed, but no one bid any further sum, so the
auctioneer, who wanted to get home to his supper, banged his hammer on
the table, and to her surprise and delight the widow found that the
chair was hers.

With her boy's help she got the chair home, and cheered her invalid
father by telling him 'his old bones should ache no longer. She would
have him in an easy-chair by the following day.'

She was up at daybreak, and immediately after their frugal breakfast she
dragged the chair into the yard, and began ripping up the fusty old
lining.

'Let me do that, mother. I can rip finely,' said George, taking the
knife out of her hand, for there is a certain joy in tearing and cutting
that appeals to a boy.

'Very well,' said his mother, 'then I will get a pail of warm water, and
we will scrub the rosewood, and get all this black dirt off it; and when
that's done I'll begin the upholstering. I'm going to cover it with my
old red cloak. It will be fine and soft for your grandfather, and I
don't wear colours now, so that I can spare the cloak. But, first of
all, I will put Grandfather in the window-seat, so that he can see all
we are doing. It will amuse him; his life is dull enough, poor dear old
man.'

She went indoors, and George continued the ripping, enjoying the clouds
of dust he raised in the process.

The little woman had just settled her father comfortably on the wooden
settle, where he could look out of the window and see all that went on
in the yard, when they were startled by a cry from George.

'Mother! Mother! Oh, come!'

'He has cut himself!' said the poor woman, turning deadly pale, as she
flew out into the yard.

But George was unhurt, though he looked dazed and half stupefied.

'Look here, Mother,' he said, pointing down to the ground, 'this chair
was full of gold pieces. No wonder it was so heavy to drag home!'

'Gold pieces! Oh, no!' she said, shaking her head. 'You must have made a
mistake, my boy.'

'Look at them!' said George,