rred, as a possibly needed protection against sun or
rain, as the case might be. So they begged that Bill and Jim might act
as carriers, coaxing Thomas to spare them from pantry duty,--a matter
not attended with much difficulty, as the old butler was only too
willing to indulge them on all occasions, even to the length of taking
double work on his own shoulders.

They all set forth on their errand of charity in high glee; but Jim
returned from the expedition with a face and air of such portentous
gravity, so different from his usual happy-go-lucky bearing, that Milly
was moved to ask if any thing unpleasant had occurred.

"Captain Yorke nor his folks didn't do nothin', Miss Milly," answered
Jim.

"Who, then?" asked Milly.

"Well, no _one_, Miss Milly," he replied. "I was on'y thinkin' what a
lot of 'em there was, an' it bothers me."

"So many Yorkes, do you mean?" queried Milly, rather wondering at his
evident perturbation.

"Such a many blind an' hunchback an' sick folks," he said; "an' how are
they all goin' to be done for. The more you try to do for some of 'em,
the more of 'em seem to come up. There's Matty and Tony Blair, who me
an Bill has took into our keepin' soon as we get to the city; an' now
here comes a Yorke hunchback, an' a Yorke blind, an' a Yorke sick baby,
all sudden like; an' I say that's pretty hard on the ole captain. I
like the captain firstrate, I do, Miss Milly; an' I don't like to see
him put upon that way. Some of us ought to see to 'em for him, but you
can't do for all."

"No, Jim," Milly said, soothingly, to the young philanthropist, "we
cannot do for all who need; but, if each one does his or her mite, we
can among us greatly lighten the load of human suffering; and that is
what we must all try to do, without making ourselves unhappy over that
which is beyond our reach or means."

"_You_ did a mighty big mite, when you did for Bill an' me, Miss Milly,"
said her pupil and _protege_, looking gratefully at her. "There ain't
no halfway 'bout you, Miss Milly. But I would like to help Captain
Yorke, if I could; an' I was thinkin', could I do up them sums again
'bout the peanuts, an' get out a share for the Yorkes."

Milly laughed, for she had heard of Jim's plans, and of the various
objects which were to be benefited by the "peanut-undertaking;" and, as
frequent new claims and claimants appeared to share in the profits, she
argued that the proportion of each would be small.

"Jim," she