Finally he said, "I'll tell you what I'll do.

I'll contribute one hundred dollars towards the repairs, if you'll make a tenant named Podds in the same building pay his rent; or dispossess him if he doesn't, so that it shan't cost me anything." Peter agreed, and went to see the tenant in arrears.

He found that the man had a bad rheumatism and consequently was unable to work.

The wife was doing what she could, and even the children had been sent on the streets to sell papers, or by other means, to earn what they could.

They also owed a doctor and the above-mentioned grocer.