d bread and milk," he said ruefully. "But
I don't guess there's any milk."

Vada promptly threw herself into the breach.

"On'y Jamie has bread an' milk, pop-pa. Y'see his new teeth ain't
through. Mine is. You best cut his up into wee bits."

"Sure, of course," agreed Scipio in relief. "I'll get along down to
Minky's for milk after," he added, while he obediently proceeded to
cut up the boy's meat.

It was a strange meal. There was something even tragic in it. The
children were wildly happy in the thought that they had shared in this
wonderful surprise for their mother. That they had assisted in those
things which childhood ever yearns to share in--the domestic doings of
their elders.

The man ate mechanically. His body told him to eat, and so he ate
without knowing or caring what. His distraught mind was traveling
swiftly through the barren paths of hopelessness and despair, while
yet he had to keep his children in countenance under their fire of
childish prattle. Many times he could have flung aside his mask and
given up, but the babyish laughter held him to an effort such as he
had never before been called upon to make.

When the meal was finished Scipio was about to get up from his chair,
but Vada's imperious tongue stayed him.

"We ain't said grace," she declared complainingly.

And the man promptly dropped back into his seat.

"Sure," he agreed helplessly.

At once the girl put her finger-tips together before her nose and
closed her eyes.

"Thank God for my good dinner, Amen, and may we help fix up after?"
she rattled off.

"Ess," added Jamie, "tank Dod for my dood dinner, Amen, me fix up,
too."

And with this last word both children tumbled almost headlong from the
bench which they were sharing. Nor had their diminutive parent the
heart to deny their request.

The next hour was perhaps one of the hardest in Scipio's life. Nothing
could have impressed his hopeless position upon him more than the
enthusiastic assistance so cordially afforded him. While the children
had no understanding of their father's grief, while with every
heart-beat they glowed with a loving desire to be his help, their
every act was an unconscious stab which drove him until he could have
cried aloud in agony.

And it was a period of catastrophe. Little Vada scalded her hand and
had to be petted back to her normal condition of sunny smiles. Jamie
broke one of the few plates, and his tears had to be banished by
assurances