dollars, millions of them which little Abel was some time to possess;
these were Old Growly's dreams, and he loved to dream them!

Meanwhile the world did well by the old man; despising him,
undoubtedly, for his avarice and selfishness, but constantly pouring
wealth, and more wealth, and even more wealth into his coffers. As for
the old man, he cared not for what the world thought or said, so long
as it paid tribute to him; he wrought on as of old, industriously,
shrewdly, hardly, but with this new purpose: to make his little boy
happy and great with riches.

Toys and picture-books were vanities in which Old Growly never
indulged; to have expended a farthing for chattels of that character
would have seemed to Old Growly like sinful extravagance. The few
playthings which little Abel had were such as his mother
surreptitiously bought; the old man believed that a child should be
imbued with a proper regard for the value of money from the very start,
so his presents were always cash in hand, and he bought a large tin
bank for little Abel, and taught the child how to put the copper and
silver pieces into it, and he labored diligently to impress upon the
child of how great benefit that same money would be to him by and by.
Just picture to yourself, if you can, that fond, foolish old man
seeking to teach this lesson to that wan-eyed, pinched-face little
cripple! But little Abel took it all very seriously, and was so apt a
pupil that Old Growly made great joy and was wont to rub his bony hands
gleefully and say to himself, "He has great genius,--this boy of
mine,--great genius for finance!"

But on a day, coming from his factory, Old Growly was stricken with
horror to find that during his absence from home a great change had
come upon his child. The doctor said it was simply the progress of the
disease; that it was a marvel that little Abel had already held out so
long; that from the moment of his birth the seal of death had been set
upon him in that cruel malady which had drawn his face and warped his
body and limbs. Then all at once Old Growly's eyes seemed to be opened
to the truth, and like a lightning flash it came to him that perhaps
his pleasant dreams which he had dreamed of his child's future could
never be realized. It was a bitter awakening, yet amid it all the old
man was full of hope, determination, and battle. He had little faith
in drugs and nursing and professional skill; he remembered that upon
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