“The rent and things took it all.  That was the noblest act you ever done, Joe; it made me certain you was thinkin’ of us, and from the moment I got that money I was sure you would come back no matter what people said!”

“Humph!” said Joe.  “Is there anything in the house fit to eat?  Because if there is, I’ll feed my face right now!”

“Do set down, Joe; I’ll have something for you in a minute—­why didn’t you tell me you was hungry?”

She was already rattling plates and knives at the cupboard, and Joe took the chair she had quitted when he entered the house, stretching his legs under his own table with a sense of deep satisfaction.  He had not considered it worth his while to visit the kitchen sink, although his mode of life, as well as his mode of travel for days past, had covered him with dust and grime; nor did he take off his ragged cap.  It had always been his custom to wear it in the privacy of his own home, it was one of the last things he removed before going to bed at night; at all other times it reposed on the top of his curly red head as the only safe place for a cap to be.

“I was real worried about Arthur along in March,” said Mrs. Montgomery, as such odds and ends as had survived the appetites of all the little Montgomerys began to assemble themselves on the table.

“What’s he been a-doin’?” inquired Arthur’s father.

“It was his chest,” explained Nellie.

Joe grunted.  By this time his two elbows were planted on the edge of the table and his mouth was brought to within six scant inches of his plate.  The handy-man’s table manners were not his strong point.

“Oh, I guess his chest is all right!” he paused to say.

“I thought it was best to be on the safe side, so I took him up-town and had his health examined by a doctor.  He had to take off his shirt so he could hear Arthur’s lungs.”

“Well, I’m damned,—­what did he do that for?” cried Joe, profoundly astonished.

“It was a mercy I’d washed him first,” added Nellie, not comprehending the reason of her husband’s sudden show of interest though gratified by it.

“Lord, I thought you meant the doctor had took off his shirt!” said Joe.  “He’s all right now, ain’t he?”

“Yes, but he did have such an alarmin’ cough; it hung on and hung on, it seemed to me like it was on his chest, but the doctor said no, and I was that relieved!  I used some of the twenty dollars to pay him and to get medicine from the drug store.”

Joe was cramming his mouth full of cold meat and bread, and for the moment could not speak; when at length he could and did, it was to say: 

“I hear Andy Gilmore’s left town?”

“Yes, all of a sudden, and no one knows where he’s gone!”

“I guess he’s had enough of Mount Hope, and I guess Mount Hope’s had enough of him!” remarked Joe.

“They say the police was goin’ to stop the gamblin’ in his rooms if he hadn’t gone when he did.”