"It's a check with papa's name to it, and it's good for fifty dollars.

Now, do you wonder I'm delighted ?" "No, not if it's yours.

Did he give it to you ?" "Half of it; the other half's to be divided between you and Gracie; and it's just for pocket-money for this summer." "Oh, that is nice!" exclaimed Violet.

"I am very glad for you all." Lulu looked astounded for an instant; then the tears welled up into her eyes as she said falteringly, "I--don't deserve it; and--I thought papa was so vexed with me, I should never have expected he'd give me a single cent." "He's just a splendid father, that's what he is!" cried Max, with another bound of exultant delight.

"He says that if we go to the mountains, and grandpa thinks I can be trusted with a gun, I'm to have one of the best that can be bought; and, if I'm a splendid boy all the time, when he comes home I shall have a fine pony of my own." Then sobering down, "I'm afraid, though, that he can't afford all that; and I shall tell him so, and that I don't want him to spend too much of his hard-earned pay on his only son." "Good boy!" Violet said with an approving smile; "but I know it gives your father far more pleasure to lay out money for his children than to spend it on himself." Still, she wondered within herself, for a moment, if her husband had in some way become a little richer than he was when last he described his circumstances to her.