"Peace, man! Do you disdain to labor for your wife and children? Do not
other men support their families, and why not you, pray?"

"But other men have helpmates in their wives."

This was the spark which ignited the hidden fires. Her black eyes
blazed, and her breast heaved. She upbraided him until he withdrew and,
mounting his horse, rode away. At night he returned to find his wife
silent and morose, and for nine days they scarcely spoke. This life was
trying to John.

After a few days she grew more amiable and expressed sympathy with her
husband in his financial straits.

"I am going to economize," she declared. "I will take no heed what I
shall eat, nor what I shall drink, nor wherewithal I shall be clothed."

Again for the thousandth time he took heart. After all, Dorothe might
become a helpmate. She was so beautiful and so cheerful in her
pleasanter moods that he thought her a treasure. When he took his baby
on his knee and felt her soft, warm cheek against his own, he realized
that life might be endurable even in adversity.

One evening, as they talked over his financial troubles, he said:

"Our family has a fortune in Florida."

At the name of fortune, Mrs. Stevens' head became erect, and she was all
attention like a war-horse at the blast of a trumpet.