. His whole heart had been in his work
before and his one aim in life had been to make money.

He had saved quite a snug little sum, which he very prudently placed in
the bank.

Now, to his mother's horror, his recklessness lost him his position, and
he did not have enough ambition to try and secure another place, but
commenced to draw his little hoard from the bank, and his money was
disappearing like snow before a summer's sun.

He began coming in late at nights, as well, and the widow, who listened
for his footsteps, cried out in anguish: "Would to God that I had died
ere I had lived to see this horrible change take place in my idolized
son!"

His cousin Barbara keenly felt the change in him. It was she who
comforted the poor old mother, and who pleaded with Jack to try and take
up the duties of life again, and to forget faithless Dorothy.

But he would only shake his head, and answer that he would never cease
to love Dorothy and search for her while life lasted. But troubles never
seem to come singly. One day, as Jack was pacing restlessly up and down
Broadway--the vantage-ground which he always sought at six o'clock each
evening, to scan the faces of the working-girls as they passed, with the
lingering hope in his heart that some day, sooner or later, his
vigilance would be rewarded by seeing Dorothy--a terrible accident
happened which almost cost him his life.

An old sign on one of the corner buildings, which had done service many
a year, suddenly fell, and Jack--poor Jack, was knocked senseless to the
pavement.

Surely it was the workings of Providence that Jessie Staples happened
along just at that critical moment.

With a wild, bitter cry she sprang forward, flinging herself upon the
prostrate body, shrieking out as she saw his handsome, white face with
the stains of blood upon it:

"Oh, Heaven have mercy! It is Jack--Jack Garner!"

Kindly hands raised him. No, he was not dead--only stunned, and terribly
bruised.

A cab was hastily summoned, and, accompanied by Jessie, he was taken
home.

The girl broke the sad news gently to Jack's mother and to Barbara. It
was many and many a day before Jack left his couch; the accident had
proved more dangerous than had been at first anticipated, for brain
fever had set in.

Every day on her way home from the book-bindery Jessie would go several
blocks out of her way to see how Jack was getting along, and Barbara and
his mother soon discovered that it was