ed at each other, and at last Bibbs found what
it meant not to be alone in the world. He had a friend.

CHAPTER XX

When he came into the New House, a few minutes later, he found his
father sitting alone by the library fire. Bibbs went in and stood before
him. "I'm cured, father," he said. "When do I go back to the shop? I'm
ready."

The desolate and grim old man did not relax. "I was sittin' up to give
you a last chance to say something like that. I reckon it's about time!
I just wanted to see if you'd have manhood enough not to make me take
you over there by the collar. Last night I made up my mind I'd give you
just one more day. Well, you got to it before I did--pretty close to
the eleventh hour! All right. Start in to-morrow. It's the first o' the
month. Think you can get up in time?"

"Six o'clock," Bibbs responded, briskly. "And I want to tell you--I'm
going in a 'cheerful spirit.' As you said, I'll go and I'll 'like it'!"

"That's YOUR lookout!" his father grunted. "They'll put you back on the
clippin'-machine. You get nine dollars a week."

"More than I'm worth, too," said Bibbs, cheerily. "That reminds me, I
didn't mean YOU by 'Midas' in that nonsense I'd been writing. I meant--"

"Makes a hell of a lot o' difference what you meant!"

"I just wanted you to know. Good night, father."

"G'night!"

The sound of the young man's footsteps ascending the stairs became
inaudible, and the house was quiet. But presently, as Sheridan sat
staring angrily at the fire, the shuffling of a pair of slippers could
be heard descending, and Mrs. Sheridan made her appearance, her oblique
expression and the state of her toilette being those of a person who,
after trying unsuccessfully to sleep on one side, has got up to look for
burglars.

"Papa!" she exclaimed, drowsily. "Why'n't you go to bed? It must be
goin' on 'leven o'clock!"

She yawned, and seated herself near him, stretching out her hands to
the fire. "What's the matter?" she asked, sleep and anxiety striving
sluggishly with each other in her voice. "I knew you were worried all
dinner-time. You got something new on your mind besides Jim's bein'
taken away like he was. What's worryin' you now, papa?"

"Nothin'."

She jeered feebly. "N' tell ME that! You sat up to see Bibbs, didn't
you?"

"He starts in at the shop again to-morrow morning," said Sheridan.

"Just the same as he did before?"

"Just pre-CISELY!"

"How--how long you goin' to keep him at