bring money to his mother.

So completely enslaved had her mind become to a lust for money, that the
thought of his gaining wealth by any means was for some time delightful
to her; she looked on their great poverty, and she felt, in her darkened
judgment, that they had something of a right to take forcibly a portion
of the superabundant money of the rich. Her eyes glared with eagerness
for the sight of her son returning with money, even though that money
was stolen; the habitual mood of her mind prevailed rapidly over the
impressions of returning goodness and affection which for a brief period
had awoke within her.

In the midst of the return of her overwhelming desire for money,
Andrew's knock came to the door. The eager inquiry whether he had
brought any money with him was bursting from her lips the moment she
opened the door and beheld him, but she was cheeked by the sight of two
strangers who accompanied him. Andrew bade the men follow him, and
walked rapidly to the kitchen; the tones of his voice were so changed
and hollow that his mother hardly recognized him to be her son.

He requested the men to be seated, telling them that when the noise on
the street would be quiet and the people dispersed they would get that
for which they had come. At that moment a drunken broil on the street
had drawn some watchmen to the neighborhood.

He bade his mother follow him, and proceeded hastily to his own room. By
the aid of a match he lighted the miserable candle by which, some hours
previously, he had been writing.

"Mother, here is money--gold--here--your hand." He pressed some gold
coins into her hand. "Gold! ay, gold, gold, indeed!" gasped his mother,
the intensity of her joy repressing for the instant all extravagant
demonstrations of it.

"Go, go away to the kitchen; in about five or ten minutes let the men
come here, and they will get what I have sold them."

"Money! money at last; gold--gold!" cried his mother, altogether
unconscious of what her son was saving, and only awake to the blessed
sense of having at last obtained money.

"Away, I say; go to the kitchen. I have no time to lose."

"Money! blessings, blessings on you and God--money!" She seemed still in
ignorance of Andrew's request that she would withdraw.

"Away, I say, I must be alone; away to the kitchen, and leave me alone;
but let the men come here in a few minutes and take what they have
purchased."

He spoke with a strange energy. She obeyed