How swiftly did she hurry home with her little treasure! more precious than a hundred times the sum had ever been before.  It was to meet the first expressed want of her husband, to gratify which she would herself have abstained days from food.

The grapes were soon obtained, with some bread, and a small portion of meat, for the children.  They proved very grateful and refreshing to Wilmer, who, soon after he had eaten a few of them, fell into a gentle sleep.

The food which Mrs. Wilmer had bought would last them probably about two days—­not longer.  Two months’ rent would be due in a week, amounting to eight dollars.  Their landlord had threatened to take some of their things to satisfy the last months’ rent, and she had little hope of his being put off longer than the expiration of the two months.  There were still two-and-a-half dollars due her by the keeper of the clothing-store, which she knew it would be almost as hard to get as to earn.

Not disposed, however, to sit down and brood over her difficulties, which only made them worse, she went to work in the best spirit possible to overcome them.  She obtained more work, and bent herself again over her daily employment.

She was sitting with an aching head and troubled heart at her work on the next morning, having only sought a brief repose through the night, when a smart tap at the door roused her from her abstraction of mind.

“Does Mrs. Wilmer live here, ma’am?” asked a man.

“That is my name.”

“Then I am directed to leave this basket,”—­and the man deposited his burden on the floor, and was gone before another word could be spoken.

Mrs. Wilmer stood for a moment in mute surprise, and then removed the covering off the basket.  It contained tea, coffee, sugar, rice, meat, bread, and various other articles of food; and also, a letter directed to “Constance Wilmer.”  She broke the seal with an anxious and trembling heart.  It contained a fifty dollar note, and these brief words:—­

“Put by your work—­you are cared for—­there is help coming, and now very nigh—­be of good cheer!”

The coarse garment she still held in her hand, fell to the floor.  Her fingers released themselves from it by an instinctive effort which she could not control.  Her head reeled for a moment, and she sunk into a chair, overcome by a tumult of contending feelings.  From this, she was aroused by the voice of her husband, who anxiously inquired the contents of the letter.  He read it, and saw the enclosure, and the supply of food in the basket, and then clasped his hands and looked up with mute thankfulness to heaven.  Mrs. Wilmer obeyed, with a confidence for which she could not account, the injunction of her stranger-friend, and almost hourly for the first day referred to the characters of the letter, which seemed familiar to her eye.  That she had seen the writing before, she was certain; but where, or when, she could not tell.