the soft body and thick fur might
comfort her shuddering frame. And oftentimes as she lay there "Eddie"
sat at a table nearby and wrote upon the long strips of paper which he
rolled into the neat little rolls which he or "Muddie" took around to
the editors.

And sometimes the editors were glad to have them, and to pay little
checks for them, and sometimes not.

The truth was, that though the fame of Edgar Poe was well established,
there was an undercurrent of opposition to him, that kept the price of
his work down. The little authors--venomous with spite and jealousy--the
little authors, chief among whom was Rufus Griswold of the furtive eye
and deprecating voice, were sending forth little whispers defaming his
character, exaggerating his weakness and damning his work with faint
praise, or emphatic abuse.

A day came when Edgar Poe realized that he must move on--that the "City
of Brotherly Love" had had enough of him--that to remain must mean
starvation. What removal would mean he did not know. That might mean
starvation too, but, as least, he did not know it.

It was hard to leave the rose-embowered cottage. It was April and about
Spring Garden and the cottage the old old miracle of the renewal of life
was begun. The birds were nesting and the earliest flowers were in
bloom. It was bitter to leave it--but, there was no money for the rent.
His fame had been greatest in New York, of late. The New York papers had
been the most hospitable to his work. It was bitter to leave Spring
Garden, but perhaps somewhere about New York they would find another
rose-embowered cottage. Virginia was unusually well for the present and
the prospect of a change carried with it a possibility of prosperity.
Who could tell what good fortune they might fall upon in New York?

Edgar Goodfellow had suddenly made his appearance for the first time in
many moons. _A change_ was the thing they all needed, he told himself.
In change there was hope!

He placed Mother Clemm and "Catalina" temporarily with some friends of
the "City of Brotherly Love" who had invited them, and accompanied by
his Virginia who was looking less wan than for long past, fared forth,
in the highest spirits, to seek, for the second time a home in New York.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

New York once more! They went by rail to Amboy and the remaining forty
miles by steamboat.

Certain cities, like certain persons, are witches; they have power to
cast a spell. New York is