nch in his giving.

She wrote to Mr. Bliss, her lawyer, asking him to send her five hundred
dollars, mailing the letter to the other Elsie to be forwarded from New
York. That seemed to her inexperience a large sum and able to work
wonders. But before her letter had reached New York she began to feel
as if it wouldn't be sufficient to make everything straight for a new
start; and before there was time for an answer from San Francisco, she
was sadly convinced that it would be only a drop in the bucket.
Whereupon she decided that if Mr. Bliss sent it to her without comment,
and didn't evidently consider it a very large sum, she would ask him to
duplicate it.

With a certain relief, she put off the frank talk with Mrs. Middleton
until she should have received the money. It did not arrive so soon as
she expected it, and she was still waiting when Kate came to her in
excitement one morning saying that the iceman wouldn't leave any ice
unless he were paid cash. Elsie produced her portemonnaie.

"Oh, Miss Elsie, I hate to take your money," protested Kate with tears
in her eyes. "I wouldn't 'a' come to you only I'm strapped myself,
what with buyin' the hat with all them plumes, and the missus after
borrowin' my last five-dollar bill."

"Katy Flanagan, what made you let her have it?" cried the girl almost
fiercely.

"Well, Miss Elsie, the truth is, I couldn't resist her. There's
something about her, you know--a-askin' so airy like, and forgettin'
how--goodness, the man'll clear out with his ice if I don't fly."

Thereafter, Elsie paid also for the ice and the milk, leaving, out of
her allowance and the money she received for the library work, barely
enough for postage. But she didn't mind that; it was really a slight
sacrifice. She cared so much for the work at the library that she
would have paid for the privilege of doing it; and she had come so well
provided with all the accessories of clothing that she hadn't even to
buy gloves for another year.

Looking forward, she began to speculate on the possibility of starting
anew after finances were once straightened out. It appeared doubtful,
she being herself more ignorant than Kate, but presently a happy
suggestion presents itself to her. One afternoon she asked Mrs. King,
a kind, motherly, grey-haired lady who taught domestic science at the
high school and came to the library frequently, whether there were any
book to teach one how much to spend each week on diff