Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/34

26 "I don't know," he replied, with a smile; "it feels very light just now, and my heart too."

Charlotte looked grave.

"No one would think," said Susan, "that Charlotte was glad to see you, Harry; but she is, for we both love you just as well as if you were a brother—having none that's natural, you know. But poor Lottie is worse than ever this springs and nothing seems to do her any good; and I have been trying to persuade her to send round a subscription-paper to get money to go to New-York; maybe she'll consent now you have come to ask her."

"That's the very thing," said Harry, "I want to speak to her about."

"Oh, don't, Harry; if our friends and neighbours were to think of it themselves, I would accept the money thankfully, but I cannot ask for it."

"You need not, Charlotte—you need not—but you will take it from a brother, as Susy almost calls me, won't you?"

He hastily took from his pocketbook five ten-dollar notes, and put them on Charlotte's lap.

"Harry!" Charlotte feebly articulated.

"Oh, Harry, Harry!" shouted Susan, throwing her arms round his neck in a transport of joy, and then starting back and slightly blushing; "did I not tell you so, Lottie?" she said.

Charlotte smiled through her tears. "Not precisely so, Susy, for who could have expected this? But I might have known it was not for the money, as you did say, but for what the money would bring, that Harry was working."

"And what could money bring so good as