r boots patched, for I can't afford a new
pair. I was trying to collect a pound towards your winter things, but
this puts a stop to everything."

"Mother doesn't know what a lovely blouse I've got," thought Susy. "When
she sees me in that she'll be quite cheered up."

The moment she thought of the blouse the little girl felt a frantic
desire to run upstairs to look at it.

"Mother," she said, "I don't mind a bit about the winter dress; and if
my boots are neatly patched and well blacked every day, I dare say I can
do with them a little longer. And I will sit with you this afternoon,
mother, and help you to sew. I can't understand who could have stolen
the money. Perhaps it is a practical joke of Tom's; you know he is fond
of doing things of that sort now and then."

"No, it isn't, for I asked him. Who can have come into the shop? Do you
think you fell asleep over your work?"

"Oh, no."

"Then it is a mystery past bearing. If nobody came in, and you never
left either the shop or the parlor, that money was taken out of the till
as though by magic."

"We will find it, mother; we are sure to find it," said Susy; and the
way she said these words aggravated poor Mrs. Hopkins, as she said
afterwards, more than a little.

CHAPTER XII.

TOM HOPKINS AND HIS WAY WITH AUNT CHURCH.

It was quite true that Mrs. Hopkins could ill afford to lose so large a
sum as nineteen-and-sixpence out of her small earnings. During her
husband's lifetime the stationer's shop had gone well and provided a
comfortable living for his wife, son, and daughter. But unfortunately,
in an evil moment he had been induced to put his hand to a bill for a
friend. The friend had, as usually is the case, become bankrupt. Poor
Hopkins had to pay the money, and from that moment the affairs in the
stationer's shop were the reverse of flourishing. In fact, the blow
killed the poor man. He lingered for a time, broken-hearted and unable
to rouse himself, and finally died about three years before the
date of this story. For a time Mrs. Hopkins was quite prostrate, but
being a woman with a good deal of vigor and determination, she induced
one of her relatives to lend her one hundred pounds, and determined to
keep on with the shop. She could not, of course, stock it as fully as
she would have liked; she could never extend her connection beyond mere
stationery, sealing-wax, pens, and a very few books, and Christmas cards
in the winter. Still, she managed