Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/87

Rh a quiet home and good children, and I do my best; what more do you want to make you content? Even if we are poor, money is not everything."

"Yes, it is," the man said; "it is everything."

"Harry, I am ashamed of you; and before the children. We have always had enough to eat and to clothe ourselves. You ought to thank God instead of grumbling; there are so many worse off than we are. Soon the children will be earning for us. Of course, I don't say it is not a fall for us both, living since we were married in a position neither of us were—at least, I was not—used to. But we can still be grateful, even in a small house like this. And I wish you would not sit down to the table with your hand all clay. What were you doing to get them so soiled?—such a bad example for the children."

years after this Henry's father died, and on the shoulders of the eldest son fell his mantle of hopelessness. For a year he, lagging,