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anything I can do to earn some money. Folks has been good, and we've
had enough to eat so far; but it stands to reason I've got to do
something myself."

"Yes," Gerry nodded gravely, "and the children will have to help. Maybe
Tad can do some of the gardening ol--Mr. Jimson used to do, and Jennie's
big enough to take care of the little ones and help do the housework so
you can go out part of the time."

"I guess all the housework won't hurt her," sighed Mrs. Jimson, brushing
away a slow tear that was stealing down her cheek. But at the same
moment a ray of hope began to steal into her heart with Gerry's brisk
planning.

"I'd be willing to do anything," she went on more energetically. "I
ain't lazy, though folks may think so; but I've got plum discouraged."

"And now you are going to take heart o' grace and begin again," declared
Mother Brace, coming in with her broom over her shoulder in time to hear
the last words. "I suppose, then, you're willing to come and scrub my
barn floors for me to-morrow morning. They won't be very hard, but I
can't get down so long on account of my knee. I can pay you fifty
cents."

"Oh, I'll come." Mrs. Jimson straightened up so eagerly that she nearly
dropped the baby. "And I'll get 'em clean, too. I know how if I don't
look it."

Telegraphic signs passed between Mother Brace and Gerry by which it was
decided to say nothing about the moving at present. Nevertheless Mrs.
Jimson went home much lighter of heart and foot than when she came,
though she carried several extra pounds in the way of vegetables and
fresh bread.

Hardly was she out of sight when Mrs. Thomas Benton, president of the
Ladies' Aid Society, rapped at the Braces' front door.

"You see," she told Gerry when she had recovered her breath, being
somewhat portly for so steep a hill, "we've heard about your barn plan,
and we thought we'd better have a finger in the pie. So we decided that
instead of packing a barrel for the heathen just now we will dress up
the Jimson's, so as to have them match better with their new home. Oh,
we shall do the heathen before long, too; only we thought maybe this was
an 'ought to have done and not leave the other undone.'"

Bright and early next morning Mrs. Jimson was on her knees scrubbing the
barn floors, little dreaming that she was helping to lay the foundation
for her own future happiness.

She could not have been more thorough, had she known, much to Mother
Brace's satisfactio