r in three or four days, but
after I had strolled a block or two up Broadway I encountered him. I
have always thought that he had kept an eye on me and had really
followed me; was looking, in short, to see what I would do As usual he
was most smartly and comfortably dressed.

"Where you going, Thee?" he called cheerfully.

"Oh, no place in particular," I replied rather suavely, I presume. "Just
going up the street."

"Now, see here, sport," he began--a favorite expression of his,
"sport"--with his face abeam, "what's the use you and me quarreling?
It's Christmas Eve, ain't it? It's a shame! Come on, let's have a drink
and then go out to dinner."

"Well," I said, rather uncompromisingly, for at times his seemingly
extreme success and well-being irritated me, "I'll have a drink, but as
for dinner I have another engagement."

"Aw, don't say that. What's the use being sore? You know I always feel
the same even if we do quarrel at times. Cut it out. Come on. You know
I'm your brother, and you're mine. It's all right with me, Thee. Let's
make it up, will you? Put 'er there! Come on, now. We'll go and have a
drink, see, something hot--it's Christmas Eve, sport. The old home
stuff."

He smiled winsomely, coaxingly, really tenderly, as only he could smile.
I "gave in." But now as we entered the nearest shining bar, a Christmas
crowd buzzing within and without (it was the old Fifth Avenue Hotel), a
new thought seemed to strike him.

"Seen E---- lately?" he inquired, mentioning the name of the troubled
sister who was having a very hard time indeed. Her husband had left her
and she was struggling over the care of two children.

"No," I replied, rather shamefacedly, "not in a week or two--maybe
more."

He clicked his tongue. He himself had not been near her in a month or
more. His face fell, and he looked very depressed.

"It's too bad--a shame really. We oughtn't to do this way, you know,
sport. It ain't right. What do you say to our going around there," it
was in the upper thirties, "and see how she's making out?--take her a
few things, eh? Whaddya say?"

I hadn't a spare dollar myself, but I knew well enough what he meant by
"take a few things" and who would pay for them.

"Well, we'll have to hurry if we want to get anything now," I urged,
falling in with the idea since it promised peace, plenty and good will
all around, and we rushed the drink and departed. Near at hand was a
branch of one of the greatest grocer