they learned so that in time they became competent to demand and receive
large salaries. She loved Miss Kate and asked her if she might join. Kate
assented, and it was then that the girls first met her. Gradually the
desire to collect the two hundred dollars for Mollie came back, and with
it the temptation to steal. She took money from every girl. She was even
willing, after placing Mollie in the Hospital, to go to prison, if only
the child could be cured. She felt that some day she would be caught with
the goods. She adored Miss Kate and took nothing from her. Finally she
began taking jewelry to sell.

This morning she was on her way to find a hiding place for the two rings
and a diamond locket taken from another girl, when she heard Ethel and
Patty call. Then she was sure that they had discovered her secret, and
trying to run away she tripped and lost consciousness. "Now that I have
told you all," she added, "your father--Judge Sands--will send me up,"
and she sobbed piteously. Her grief was sincere. She had not stolen for
herself. She had been desperate. Pity crept into the hearts of the two
girls and they constituted themselves her friends. They made her replace
the jewelry in Nora's and Edna's suit cases. They found the lady's card
from whom she had taken the purse and had Mattie return the money and bag
with a note withholding her name. They had her draw out the money
obtained from the sale of the purloined articles and return it to the
head of the Department Store saying that the things had been taken and
sold under great provocation for a sick child, enumerating them and the
prices, after which she felt happier, for she knew that the girls would
remain her friends. "Some day," she said, "I may make good."

Ethel wrote and got Aunt Susan interested in little Mollie. Being a
manager of a Cripples School that lady at once placed her free of charge
in one of the wards as a boarder and pupil. The resident physician