y the rent.
This made Tony one of the aristocrats of the neighborhood, and when it
became known that Gabriella had a cot to sleep on, instead of sleeping
on the floor, as the children of other families did, the neighbors
looked up to Tony more than ever before as a man of high standing and
solid position.

Gabriella's little friends, however, were in the habit of calling her
"proud" and "stuck-up" on this account. When she was six years old
Gabriella was sent to Miss Barstow's Mission School, where many other
little Italian children also went, to learn to speak and read and write
in English. Most of the children left the school when they were eight,
and very few remained there after they were nine years old; for at that
age their parents thought them old enough to help at home, to care for
the younger children when both parents were away at work, and even to
learn to do sewing for the big clothing factories. Gabriella would have
been taken away, too, had it not been for Miss Barstow, who went to talk
with Tony and his wife. She told them that Gabriella was one of her best
scholars, and it would be to their interests, as well as their
daughter's, to let her remain at school until she was well enough
educated to do something better than sew on coarse clothing for wages
which would never support her decently. This pleased Mrs. Moreno, who
was ambitious for her pretty child, but Tony grumbled a good deal.

Gabriella was old enough, he said, to help earn bread, as the other
children of her age did. Had not her father and mother worked since they
were six years old? he asked. Then why should their child be kept in
idleness only to learn things out of books which were well enough for
the rich, but did the poor no good?

Miss Barstow was more interested in Gabriella than in any other child of
the tenements she had ever known, for the girl was really unusually
bright and pretty, and she was determined to keep her longer in the
school. She knew that Tony had his stand at the Tivoli by Mr. Kean's
permission, and to Mr. Kean she went for aid.

Miss Barstow's fashionable friends would have been surprised to learn
how often she went to Mr. Kean for aid and advice, and to know how often
he gave his aid, and how valuable his advice always was.

Mr. Kean smiled when Miss Barstow asked him if he could not help her
keep Tony's daughter in school, and said, with rough politeness,

"Yes, I guess so, miss."

What he did was simply to