with excitement. It meant that the furniture bill was as good as paid!
And there would be money in the bank for the first time since we were
married! The deal was made, and I left the theatre with the largest sum
of money I had ever made all at once. Later someone said to me that I
was foolish to sell that sketch outright for so little money.

"Foolish!" said I. "That two hundred and fifty dollars looked bigger to
me than the promise of a thousand some day in the future!"

Once more the way out had been provided.

And then came the baby--a glorious little girl--and the home had begun
to be worth-while. There was a new charm to the walls and halls. The oak
table and the green plush settee took on a new glory.

I was the usual proud father, with added variations of my own. One of my
pet illusions was that none, save Mother and me, was to be trusted to
hold our little one. When others _would_ take her, I stood guard to
catch her if in some careless moment they should let her fall.

As she grew older, my collars became finger-marked where her little
hands had touched them. We had pictures on our walls, of course, and
trinkets on the mantelpiece, and a large glass mirror which had been one
of our wedding gifts. These things had become commonplace to us--until
the baby began to notice them! Night after night, I would take her in my
arms and show her the sheep in one of the pictures, and talk to her
about them, and she would coo delightedly. The trinkets on the
mantelpiece became dearer to us because she loved to handle them. The
home was being sanctified by her presence. We had come into a new realm
of happiness.