I'm so cold, mother; I'm so ill! I can't bear it! It seems as if you'd forgotten all about me! You're all so happy in New York that perhaps you have forgotten--perhaps you have! Oh, don't, mother--don't!" It was a month later that through the vicar's wife she reached a discovery and a climax.

She had heard one morning from this lady of a misfortune which had befallen a small farmer.

It was a misfortune which was an actual catastrophe to a man in his position.

His house had caught fire during a gale of wind and the fire had spread to the outbuildings and rickyard and swept away all his belongings, his house, his furniture, his hayricks, and stored grain, and even his few cows and horses.

He had been a poor, hard-working fellow, and his small insurance had lapsed the day before the fire.