's a blessing, that, so long as I've the money to pay
for either. There wouldn't be empty flour buckets if there weren't
healthy appetites in the house; and shoes wouldn't wear out if the
feet inside them weren't active and strong."

"Hm'm. I'd like a chance to save a cent, now and then. What if your
own health should fail, or you lose your job? And I've been wanting a
set of cheap, pretty lace curtains to the front-room windows ever
since I could remember. All the neighbors have them, but we never
can."

For the first time a shadow passed across the genial face of the
plumber, though it vanished quickly.

"The curtains shall come, Mary wife, some time, if my strong arm can
earn them. But we'll not have any silly imitation laces at our
windows. They're shams, and a sham is a lie. Plain simple muslin, with
as many frills and ruffles as you've the patience to keep starched and
ironed--they're honest and suitable to our station. Meanwhile, is
there a prettier sight at anybody's windows than the row of healthy,
happy faces of our children? Look at that great house, across alley,
with not a chick nor child in it. What do you suppose its mistress
would give for such a batch of jolly little tackers as ours?" Then,
reaching across the table corner to drop another hot cake upon the
empty plate of the youngest Jay, he quoted, merrily: "'This is my boy,
I know by the building of him; bread and meat and pancakes right in
the middle of him.'"

Of course, all the children laughed at the familiar jest, and each
took heart to send up his own plate for another helping.

"They've had their allowance, John. There's no use to make a rule and
break it, dear."

"No, Mary wife. Surely not. That is, in ordinary. But in a blizzard?
Everything gets out of gear in a blizzard, even boys' appetites. As
many cakes as a child is years old is a safe rule to follow; but not
on blizzard mornings, that come but seldom in a lifetime. Hark! Quiet!
I hear a bell ringing somewhere. A dinner bell. It sounds like a
summons."

All fell perfectly silent for the space of a half-minute, maybe; then
Molly burst forth with a thought she had been pondering:

"What a good thing it was that Miss Armacost had Sir Christopher
buried last night, before this snow came! If she hadn't I don't know
what she would have done. But--I believe that bell is from her house.
It sounds out the back way, the alley side."

There was a general stampede from the table, that wa