The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-18

the family"
 "Just as you like." agreed Phillip. "How much shall you needr'
 She handed him little slip of paper upon which the amounts were already set down and totaled. The sum was pitifully small in view of all the vast sums which Phillip had at his disposal.
 'T don't think it wise for you to conf1ne this to actual necessities" he urged. "It would be much better to take a larger sum. one that would cover all emergencies.''
 Elsie shook her head firmly. "No," she said. 'fI have already allowed a small leeway. The less can make the burden the better I shall feel about it. for it must all be paid back. Please jet me have my own way"
 'T don't see how I can do otherwise" 1" replied Phillip. giving her the money. She took it. gulping down little lump which rose in her throat. then said with a pretty little assumption of busi- ness:
 T want you to write out note for me to sign"
 Without protest Phillip did so and put the note carefully away.
 "Now we come back to the question of employment" said he. You men, toned a while ago your fathers gar dening hobby. Do you suppose he would take a position in that line?"
 "A month ago he would not, but now he would gratefully. If you can get him such place it would perhaps solve our problem"
 "I believe that I can," unused Phil lip. "Just wait a minute," and he wrote a note. inclosing it in an ad- dressed envelope, which he handed to her. eff your father will take this note to the address on the envelope I am quite certain they will make a place for him."
 ''I don't know how to thank you," she said. You will have to take it for granted"
 He took her warm hand in his own. and if in that moment he had obeyed the impulse that was in his heart. If he had spoken the words that strove to rush upon his lips, the whole course of his life might have been changed-for the better. But again ambition. whiAh grinly forbade any clog upon his movements. interfered. and he held her hand with the tenderness of a brother-no more!
 Really, Elsie, wish I could have done more for you" he said. "I want you to promise me that if you get into difficulties of any sort you will let me smooth them out for you" "I have no one else to go to-" she re. piled simply Do you know how much suffering there is in the world?' she suddenly asked him.
 "I suppose there is great deal of 1t. !"
 "Do you understand what suffering is?" ~.N "T do," he returned 'T had my share of 1t-of illness. of poverty. o1 cold and hunger. of uncleanliness. o1 the social degradation that belongs with want of money know these things not as one emerging from them but as one cast down among them from luxury. Some people that expert ence softens. others it hardens and makes bitter. Sometimes 1 think ii had that latter effect with me" s'sIt must not bev' she said earnestly Phillip. what has happened to my family has happened to three-fourths of the people in Hampton. which. as | you may or may not know. is compos | ed entirely of poor people. workmer | who in better times try to buy their own homes In that village of four ol | five thousand people there are per haps one half of them facing actual starvation at this minute" "Yes?' inquired Phillip. waiting.
 'There are hundreds and hundreds of other villages like Hampton. where same condition. Things were never SC bad as they are now"
 "YesY' he asked again. 'They say-they say"-she halted and stopped. and then. with her face | coloring. she stumbled on-'they say that you brought on this panic ani that you could stop it. It isn't true, is it?"
 'Tn measure I suppose it is," ad mitted Phillip. 'The condition was like pile of loose gunpowder at the side 1 of a railroad track, where constantly passing engines are sending up sparks 1 One spark was sure to land in tha gunpowder and explode it. l merely happened to be thespark. but with nt more power than that spark to stor the subsequent destruction" 1 She recOiled from him with dilatius eyes. Ut is true. thenY' she said.
 "I suppose it is. even in the way yot look at it. but l assure you. Elsie that it was necessary. Out of thi: better times will result, and better times could not be reached excep through this devastation It is like { surgical operation. which. painful ani cruel as it may seem at the start. i: necessary to save the rest of the body from death and decay" She shook her head. 'T cannot un derstand it, but then suppose l could | never have been a surgeon | He smiled and laid his hand upo1 her shoulder. ''No, donr think yol l could"
 She winced under that touch ant glance. not because they were repul sive to her-oh. not because of that!- but because they were the touch ant glance of brother.
 Rensselaer, was announced just then