e till," said Mrs.
Hopkins. "Some one must have come into the shop, for the accounts are
nineteen-and-sixpence short. When I left the house yesterday there were
three pounds in the till--three pounds and fivepence-halfpenny. You
sold, according to your own showing, a penn'orth of paper, which makes
an extra penny; but when I went into the accounts this morning I found
that the whole amount was only two pounds one shilling and a halfpenny.
Nineteen-and-sixpence is missing. Susy, what does this mean?"

"I am sure, mother, I can't tell you. No one came into the shop;
certainly no one stole the money."

"My dear child, seeing is believing. I assure you there are only two
pounds one shilling and a halfpenny in the till. I scarcely took a penny
this morning, and that nineteen-and-sixpence makes it impossible for me
to pay my rent, as I meant to do, to-day. Who can have come in and
stolen very nearly a pound's worth of my hard-earned money?"

"Nobody, mother dear. Do let me examine the till."

"Are you quite positive that no one came into the shop?"

"Nobody, mother."

"You did not leave the shop even for a moment?"

"Yes; I went to sit in the parlor."

"Oh, Susy? there you are! I trust you with my house and property, and
you leave the shop without any one in it Did you lock the till?"

Susy had an unpleasant memory of having found the till open when she
returned to attend to a customer.

"No" she said, hanging her head.

Mrs. Hopkins uttered a heavy sigh.

"Oh, dear!" she said. "And as you sat in the parlor you could see the
shop. You did not leave the parlor, did you?"

For one minute Susy remembered that she had gone upstairs for an
exercise-book, but she determined not to tell her mother of this further
enormity.

"I was either in the shop or in the parlor all the time. I only went
into the parlor because I could not do my exercises in the shop. But I
sat where I could see everything."

"You couldn't have done so. This money would not have gone without
hands. How am I to manage I don't know. I have lost a large sum for such
a poor woman."

Susy pitied her mother, tried to assure her that the fault was not hers,
was convinced that the money would be found, and went on talking a lot
of nonsense until Mrs. Hopkins fairly lost her temper.

"Examine the drawer for yourself" she said. "I tell, you what it is,
Susy, I won't be able to buy you a new winter frock at all this year;
and you will have to have you