k the
rules.

Mrs. Hopkins came back at that moment. She had added a pound of sausage
and a little piece of pork to their usual Sunday fare. She had also
brought sixpennyworth of apples with her.

"These are to make a pudding," she said. "I think we shall do now very
well."

Susy and Tom quite agreed with their mother. Susy rose and prepared
supper, and at the crucial moment the new-laid egg was laid on Mrs.
Hopkins's plate. It takes, perhaps, a great deal of poverty to truly
appreciate a new-laid egg. Mrs. Hopkins was delighted with hers; she
thought Tom the noblest boy in the world for having denied himself in
order to give it to her. Tears filled her tired eyes as she thanked God
for her good children.

Susy and Tom watched her as she ate the egg, and thought how delicious
it must taste, but were glad she had it.

The following day dawned bright and clear, with a suspicion of frost in
the air. It was, as Tom expressed it, a perfect day. Susy went to church
with her mother in the morning, the dinner being all prepared and left
to cook itself in the oven. Tom started at about eleven o'clock on his
walk to the tiny village where Mrs. Church lived.

As soon as Susy returned from her place of worship she helped her mother
to get the little parlor ready. She put some autumn leaves in a jug on
the center of the table. Her mother brought out the best china, which
had not been used since her husband's death. The best china was very
pretty, and Susy thought that no table could look more elegant than
theirs. The best china was accompanied by some quite good knives and
forks. The forks were real silver; Mrs. Hopkins regarded them with
pride.

"If the worst--the very worst--comes," she said to Susy, "we can sell
them; but I cling to them as a piece of respectability that I never want
to part from. Your dear father gave them to me on our wedding-day--a
whole dozen of beautiful silver forks with the hall-mark on them, and
his initials on the handle of each. I want them to be Tom's some day.
Silver should always be handed on to the eldest son."

Susy felt that she was almost worthy of Kathleen's friendship as she
regarded the silver forks.

"You must never part with them, mother," she said--until Tom is married.
Then, of course, they will belong to him."

"You are a good little girl, Susy," said her mother. "Of course, there
never was a boy like Tom. It was sweet of him to give up his egg to me
last night."

Having s