‘You are not rich, my child.’

‘Oh, yes, I am,’ Maude said, ’I heard mamma tell Mrs. Brinsmade so.  She said Uncle Arthur was worth a million, and when he died we should have it all, because he could not make a will if he wanted to, and he had no children of his own,’

Although little more than seven years old, Maude Tracy was very knowing and precocious in some respects, and, like her brother Tom, had heard so much from her mother and others of their prospective wealth, that she understood the situation far better than she ought, and was already counting on the thousands waiting for her when her uncle died.  And yet Maude Tracy had in her nature qualities which were to ripen into a noble womanhood.  Truthful and generous, her instincts of right and wrong were very keen, and young as she was she had no respect for anything like deception or trickery.  This her father knew, and his bitterest pang of remorse came from this thought, ‘What would Maude say if she knew?’ And it was more for her sake he was sinning than for his own or that of any other.  She was so pretty, or would be when grown to young ladyhood, and the adornments which money could bring would so well become her.

‘Maude,’ he said at last, ’how would you like to change places with Jerry?  That is, let her come here and live, while we go away and be poor; not quite as she is, but like many people.’

‘And not wear a sash, and beads, and buttoned boots every day?’ Maude interrupted him quickly.  ’I should not like it at all.  Why, Jerry dresses herself, and wipes the dishes, and wears those big aprons all the time.  No, I don’t want to be poor;’ and as if something in her father’s mind had communicated itself to her, she raised her head from his shoulder and looked beseechingly at him.

‘Nor shall you be poor, if I can help it,’ he said; ’but you must be very kind to Jerry, and never let her feel that you are richer than she.  Do you understand?’

‘I think I do,’ Maude answered, adding as she kissed him fondly:  ’And now I s’pose I must go, for there is Hetty come for me; so, good-night, you dearest, best papa in the world.’

He knew that she believed in him fully; that should he confess his fault she would understand it, and lose faith in him.  He would bear the burden, he said to himself.  There should be no more repining or looking back, Maude must never know; and so Jerry’s chance was lost.

The next morning Arthur awoke with a racking headache.  He was accustomed to it, it is true; but this one was particularly severe.

’It’s the cherries; no wonder; a quart of those sour things would turn upside down any stomach,’ Charles said, as he glanced at the empty tin pail which was adorning an inlaid table, and then suggested a dose of ipecac as a means of dislodging the offending cherries.