ked his brains for
the means, to think he could not do so. He could not hit upon any plan
that would meet his expectations, and he decided to have a talk with her
in relation to the future.

"What are we going to do, mother?" he asked, as he seated himself in the
kitchen where Mrs. Duncan was getting supper.

"That is what I have been thinking of myself," she replied. "I have been
talking with Captain Littleton to-day, and he gave me some good advice,
and offered me any assistance I might require."

"You surely don't mean to live on charity, mother," added Paul, proudly.

"Certainly not. Captain Littleton did not offer to give me anything;
only to assist me in getting work for myself and you."

"O, well, that's all right."

"While we have our health and strength, we shall not have to ask other
help of any one."

"Of course not."

"I hope I am above asking charity, or taking it either."

"I knew you were. What did Captain Littleton say?"

"Thanks to the goodness and forethought of your father, we are not left
entirely destitute," replied Mrs. Duncan, wiping a tear from her cheek.

"I didn't know there was anything left."

"After paying all the funeral expenses and the doctor's bills, I shall
have fifty dollars in money. Your father had no debts."

"Fifty dollars isn't much, mother, towards supporting the family. It
wouldn't last two months."

"That is very true; we have more than that. Three years ago your father
had his life insured for a thousand dollars, and this sum will be paid
to me in a few days."

"I didn't know that," said Paul, greatly surprised to find they had what
seemed to him so vast a sum. "We shall get along very well."

"Your father used to calculate that it cost him about eight dollars a
week to live, or about four hundred dollars a year. If he had had work
all the year round, he might have saved a very handsome sum, he used to
tell me."

"It will not cost us eight dollars a week now."

"No; we must live very prudently; but if it cost us only five, a
thousand dollars would last but a few years, and what should we do
then?"

"We must not spend it then."

"Captain Littleton told me what he thought we had better do. This house
in which we live can be bought for fifteen hundred dollars, though the
owner has always asked eighteen hundred, and----"

"You don't really think of such a thing as buying the house?"
interrupted Paul, filled with amazement at the magnitude of the idea.