s. Money became so scarce that
they couldn't buy coal, but had to use half-burned cinders from the
common instead. Peggy declared that they made a "real hot fire," and
she would joke about their large coal cellar--meaning the common--"that
never got empty--only fuller and fuller."

Paddy would come in shivering and shaking in his threadbare coat.

"And are you frozen entirely?" she would ask.

And he would answer: "I was mortal cold, but the sight of your gentle
face has warmed my blood. Faith, it's better than all the fires!"

Whenever the sun came out she would make him take her to the window
where she could warm herself in its rays. When her husband was working
at the ash piles she would wave to him.

"On those days," said Paddy, "I always have luck. The people throw out
more rags, and the cinders are in big lumps and only half burned."

Whenever he made a good find he waved his hand to her, but one day he
waved both hands and his cap, and she knew he had been unusually
fortunate.

He came straight in to show her. He had found a big silver dollar. It
was tarnished and black from the flames, but it was a good one with a
true ring.

"Whose can it be, I wonder!" exclaimed Peggy.

"If I knew I'd have to take it back," answered Paddy, "but,
unfortunately, people don't often leave their visiting cards on their
ash heaps."

This was not all. The very day after he found the dollar, Peggy, from
her window, saw more frantic waving.

This time it was a silver spoon!

"I can find the owner of that, I'm sure," says Paddy. And he made the
rounds of all the houses in the neighbourhood to see if they were
missing any spoons, but nobody claimed it.

Peggy cleaned it and made it shine like new. At first she didn't like to
use it--it was so beautiful--but her husband persuaded her that as long
as they couldn't sell it, seeing that the owner might be found some day,
she had better get the good of it. So she yielded, and declared that
the soup had an extra richness all on account of the silver.

"It's luck coming our way, dear," says Paddy. "Money in our pockets and
a silver spoon in our mouths--you'll see."

And it was so; though at first it took such a round-about path--- a
little way luck has--that they quite mistook it for something else.

CHAPTER V.

PEGGY OVERHEARS A STARTLING CONVERSATION

One cold morning in January Paddy built up a good fire, and, putting
Peggy in her wheel chair, he placed everyth