e closer they get to my eyes, the more I can't
see. The further away they are, the better 't is. When I have 'em off,
I can see pretty good."

"Then why don't you take them off?"

"That sounds just like your pa. Do you suppose, after payin' seven
dollars and ninety cents for these glasses, and more'n twice as much for
my gold-bowed ones, that I ain't goin' to use 'em and get the benefit of
'em? Your pa never had no notion of economy. They're just as good as
they ever was, and I reckon I'll wear 'em out, if I live."

"But, Mother, your eyes may have changed. They probably have."

[Sidenote: Miss Mattie's Eyes]

Miss Mattie went to the kitchen and brought back a small, cracked
mirror. She studied the offending orbs by the light, very carefully,
both with and without her spectacles.

"No, they ain't," she announced, finally. "They're the same size and
shape and colour that they've always been, and the specs are the same.
Your pa bought 'em for me soon after you commenced readin' out of a
reader, and they're just as good as they ever was. It must be the oil.
I've noticed that it gets poorer every time the price goes up." She
pushed the paper aside with a sigh. "I was readin' such a nice story,
too."

"Shan't I read it to you, Mother?"

"Why, I don't know. Do you want to?"

"Surely, if you want me to."

"Then you'd better begin a new story, because I'm more'n half-way
through this one."

"I'll begin right where you left off, Mother. It doesn't make a particle
of difference to me."

"But you won't get the sense of it. I'd like for you to enjoy it while
you're readin'."

"Don't worry about my enjoying it--you know I've always been fond of
books. If there's anything I don't understand, I can ask you."

"All right. Begin right here in _True Gold, or Pretty Crystal's Love_.
This is the place: 'With a terrible scream, Crystal sprang toward the
fire escape, carrying her mother and her little sister in her arms.'"

[Sidenote: Two Sighs]

For nearly two hours, Roger read, in a deep, mellow voice, of the
adventures of poor, persecuted Crystal, who was only sixteen, and
engaged to a floor-walker in 'one of the great city's finest emporiums
of trade.' He and his mother both sighed when he came to the end of the
installment, but for vastly different reasons.

"Ain't it lovely, Roger?"

"It's what you might call 'different,'" he temporised, with a smile.

"Just think of that poor little thing havin' her house set