“I have little skill beyond my regular calling; but then, I have health, strength, and willingness; and I think these might be made useful in something.”

“So do I. Now to start with, I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  If you will come and open my store for me every morning, make the fire and sweep out, and come and stay an hour for me every day while I go to dinner, I will give you three dollars a week.  Two hours a day is all your time I shall want.”

“Thank you from my heart!  Of course I accept your offer.  So far so good,” said Gordon, brightening up.

“Very well.  You may begin with to-morrow morning.  No doubt you can make an equal sum by acting as a light porter for the various stores about.  I can throw a little in your way; and I will speak to my neighbors to do the same.”  There was not a happier home in the whole town than was the home of Henry Gordon that night, poor as it was.

“I knew it would all come out right,” said Mrs. Gordon.  “I knew a better day was coming.  We can live quite comfortably upon five or six dollars a week, and be happier than we have been for years.”

When Gordon thought of the past, he did not wonder that tears fell over the face of his wife, even while her lips and eyes were bright with smiles.  As the friend had supposed, Gordon was employed to do many errands by the storekeepers in the neighborhood.  Some weeks he made five dollars and sometimes six or seven.  This went on for a few months, when he began to feel discouraged.  The recollection of other and brighter days returned frequently to his mind, and he began ardently to desire an improved external condition, as well for his wife and children as for himself.  He wished to restore what had been lost; but saw no immediate prospect of being able to do so.  Six dollars a week was the average of his earnings, and it took all this, besides what little his wife earned, to make things tolerably comfortable at home.

Gordon was in a more desponding mood than usual, when he indulged in the complaint with which our story opens.  What was said to him changed the tone of his feelings, and inspired him with a spirit of cheerfulness and hope.

“Time, Faith, Energy!” he said to himself, as he walked with a more elastic step.  “Yes, these must bring out all right in the end.  I will not be so weak as to despond.  All is much improved as it is.  We are happier and better.  Time, Faith, Energy!  I will trust in these.”

When Gordon opened the door of his humble abode, he found a lad waiting to see him, who arose, and presenting a small piece of paper, said—­

“Mr. Blake wishes to know when you can settle this?”

Mr. Blake was a grocer, to whom ten dollars had been owing for a year.  He had dunned the poor drunkard for the money until he got tired of so profitless a business, and gave up the account for lost.  By some means, it had recently come to his ears that Gordon had signed the pledge.