tially a good man, and she was sorry--more for his sake than
for her own that his end had been so untimely.

These cogitations, while not at all reassuring, at least served to
pass the night away, and the next morning Bass stopped on his way to
work to say that Mrs. Gerhardt wished her to come home that same
evening. Gerhardt would not be present, and they could talk it over.
She spent the day lonesomely enough, but when night fell her spirits
brightened, and at a quarter of eight she set out.

There was not much of comforting news to tell her. Gerhardt was
still in a direfully angry and outraged mood. He had already decided
to throw up his place on the following Saturday and go to Youngstown.
Any place was better than Columbus after this; he could never expect
to hold up his head here again. Its memories were odious. He would go
away now, and if he succeeded in finding work the family should
follow, a decision which meant the abandoning of the little home. He
was not going to try to meet the mortgage on the house--he could
not hope to.

At the end of the week Gerhardt took his leave, Jennie returned
home, and for a time at least there was a restoration of the old
order, a condition which, of course, could not endure.

Bass saw it. Jennie's trouble and its possible consequences weighed
upon him disagreeably. Columbus was no place to stay. Youngstown was
no place to go. If they should all move away to some larger city it
would be much better.

He pondered over the situation, and hearing that a manufacturing
boom was on in Cleveland, he thought it might be wise to try his luck
there. If he succeeded, the others might follow. If Gerhardt still
worked on in Youngstown, as he was now doing, and the family came to
Cleveland, it would save Jennie from being turned out in the
streets.

Bass waited a little while before making up his mind, but finally
announced his purpose.

"I believe I'll go up to Cleveland," he said to his mother one
evening as she was getting supper.

"Why?" she asked, looking up uncertainly. She was rather afraid
that Bass would desert her.

"I think I can get work there," he returned. "We oughtn't to stay
in this darned old town."

"Don't swear," she returned reprovingly.

"Oh, I know," he said, "but it's enough to make any one swear.
We've never had anything but rotten luck here. I'm going to go, and
maybe if I get anything we can all move. We'd be better off if we'd
get some place where p