der
the bracket lamp, Matthew said to him:--

"Going to get a boy to work out, are you?"

Helders laughed and shifted.

"He's going to work by and by," he said. "We allow to have him to
ourselves a spell first."

"Keep him around the house till Spring?"

"More," said Helders. "You see," he added, "it's like this with us ...
family all gone, all married, and got their own. We figured to get hold
of a little shaver and have some comfort with him before he goes to
work, for life."

"Adopt him?" said Matthew, curiously.

"That's pretty near it," Helders admitted. "We've got one spoke for at
the City Orphand Asylum."

Ellen Bourne turned. "How old?" she asked.

"Around five--six, we figure." Helders said it almost sheepishly.

Ellen stood facing the men, with the white festoons of popcorn in her
hands.

"Matthew," she said, "let him bring us one."

Matthew stared. "You mean bring us a boy?" he asked.

"I don't care which--girl or boy. Anything young," Ellen said.

"Good Lord, Ellen," Matthew said, with high eyebrows, "ain't you got
your hands full enough now?"

Ellen Bourne lifted her hands slightly and let them fall. "No," she
answered.

The older woman looked at her daughter, and now first she was
solicitous, as a mother.

"Ellen," she said, "you have, too, got your hands full. You're wore out
all the time."

"That's it," Ellen said, "and I'm not wore out with the things I want to
do."

"Hey, king and country!" the old man cried, upsetting the popper. "Don't
get a child around here underfoot. I'm too old. I deserve grown folks.
My head hurts me--"

"Matthew," said Ellen to her husband, "let Helders bring us one.
To-morrow--for Christmas, Mat!"

Matthew looked slowly from side to side. It seemed incredible that so
large a decision should lie with a man so ineffectual.

"'Seems like we'd ought to think about it a while first," he said
weakly.

"Think about it!" said Ellen. "When haven't I thought about it? When
have I thought about anything else but him we haven't got any more?"

"Ellen!" the mother mourned, "you don't know what you're taking on
yourself--"

"Hush, mother," Ellen said gently; "you don't know what it is. You had
me."

She faced Helders. "Will you bring two when you come back to-morrow
night?" she said; "and one of them for us?"

Helders looked sidewise at Matthew, who was fumbling at his pipe.

"Wouldn't you want to see it first, now?" Helders temporized. "And a
girl o