ne of the music committee. Mrs. Tretherick dried her long
lashes, put on a new neck ribbon, and went down to the parlor. She staid
there two hours--a fact that might have occasioned some remark but that
the vestryman was married, and had a family of grownup daughters. When
Mrs. Tretherick returned to her room, she sang to herself in the glass
and scolded Carry--but she retained her place in the choir.

It was not long, however. In due course of time, her enemies received a
powerful addition to their forces in the committeeman's wife. That lady
called upon several of the church members and on Dr. Cope's family.
The result was that, at a later meeting of the music committee, Mrs.
Tretherick's voice was declared inadequate to the size of the building
and she was invited to resign. She did so. She had been out of a
situation for two months, and her scant means were almost exhausted,
when Ah Fe's unexpected treasure was tossed into her lap.

The gray fog deepened into night, and the street lamps started into
shivering life as, absorbed in these unprofitable memories, Mrs.
Tretherick still sat drearily at her window. Even Carry had slipped away
unnoticed; and her abrupt entrance with the damp evening paper in
her hand roused Mrs. Tretherick, and brought her back to an active
realization of the present. For Mrs. Tretherick was wont to scan
the advertisements in the faint hope of finding some avenue of
employment--she knew not what--open to her needs; and Carry had noted
this habit.

Mrs. Tretherick mechanically closed the shutters, lit the lights, and
opened the paper. Her eye fell instinctively on the following paragraph
in the telegraphic column:

FIDDLETOWN, 7th.--Mr. James Tretherick, an old resident of this place,
died last night of delirium tremens. Mr. Tretherick was addicted to
intemperate habits, said to have been induced by domestic trouble.

Mrs. Tretherick did not start. She quietly turned over another page of
the paper, and glanced at Carry. The child was absorbed in a book. Mrs.
Tretherick uttered no word, but during the remainder of the evening was
unusually silent and cold. When Carry was undressed and in bed, Mrs.
Tretherick suddenly dropped on her knees beside the bed, and, taking
Carry's flaming head between her hands, said:

"Should you like to have another papa, Carry, darling?"

"No," said Carry, after a moment's thought.

"But a papa to help Mamma take care of you, to love you, to give you
n