. If it had, the thought of Mrs.
Mudge would have been enough to remove all his hesitation.

He threw himself on his hard bed, and a few minutes brought him that
dreamless sleep which comes so easily to the young.

Meanwhile Aunt Lucy, whose thoughts were also occupied with Paul's
approaching departure, had taken from the pocket of her OTHER dress--for
she had but two--something wrapped in a piece of brown paper. One by one
she removed the many folds in which it was enveloped, and came at length
to the contents.

It was a coin.

"Paul will need some money, poor boy," said she, softly to herself, "I
will give him this. It will never do me any good, and it may be of some
service to him."

So saying she looked carefully at the coin in the moonlight.

But what made her start, and utter a half exclamation?

Instead of the gold eagle, the accumulation of many years, which she had
been saving for some extraordinary occasion like the presents she held
in her hand--a copper cent.

"I have been robbed," she exclaimed indignantly in the suddenness of her
surprise.

"What's the matter now?" inquired Mrs Mudge, appearing at the door, "Why
are you not in bed, Aunt Lucy Lee? How dare you disobey my orders?"

"I have been robbed," exclaimed the old lady in unwonted excitement.

"Of what, pray?" asked Mrs. Mudge, with a sneer.

"I had a gold eagle wrapped up in that paper," returned Aunt Lucy,
pointing to the fragments on the floor, "and now, to-night, when I come
to open it, I find but this cent."

"A likely story," retorted Mrs. Mudge, "very likely, indeed, that a
common pauper should have a gold eagle. If you found a cent in the
paper, most likely that's what you put there. You're growing old and
forgetful, so don't get foolish and flighty. You'd better go to bed."

"But I did have the gold, and it's been stolen," persisted Aunt Lucy,
whose disappointment was the greater because she intended the money for
Paul.

"Again!" exclaimed Mrs. Mudge. "Will you never have done with this
folly? Even if you did have the gold, which I don't for an instant
believe, you couldn't keep it. A pauper has no right to hold property."

"Then why did the one who stole the little I had leave me this?" said
the old lady, scornfully, holding up the cent which had been substituted
for the gold.

"How should I know?" exclaimed Mrs. Mudge, wrathfully. "You talk as if
you thought I had taken your trumpery money."

"So you did!" chimed in a