lives with gladness.

But--and many a night we sat for hours and planned and talked and
wondered--_how_ were we to meet the expense? There was nothing in the
savings bank, and much was needed there. Mother had cherished for years
her ideas for her baby's outfit. They would cost money; and I would be
no miserly father, either! My child should have the best of everything,
somehow. It was up to me to get it, somehow, to.... If only that
furniture were paid for!

Then a curious event occurred. I owed little bills amounting to about
twenty-one dollars. This sum included the gas, electric light, and
telephone bills, on which an added sum was charged if unpaid before the
tenth of the month. I had no money to meet them. I was worried and
discouraged. To borrow that sum would have been easy, but to pay it back
would have been difficult.

That very morning, into the office came the press agent of a local
theatre, accompanied by Mr. Henry Dixey, the well-known actor. Mr. Dixey
wanted two lyrics for songs. He had the ideas which he wished expressed
in rhyme, and wondered whether or not I would attempt them. I promised
him that I would, and on the spot he handed me twenty-five dollars in
cash to bind the bargain. If those songs proved successful I should have
more.

The way out had been provided! From Mr. Dixey's point of view, those
songs were not a success; but from mine they were, for they bridged me
over a chasm I had thought I could not leap. I never heard from that
pair of songs afterward; but neither Mother nor I will ever forget the
day they were written.