THE COUPON BONDS

BY J.T. TROWBRIDGE


(Mr. and Mrs. Ducklow have secretly purchased bonds with money that
should have been given to their adopted son Reuben, who has sacrificed
his health in serving his country as a soldier, and, going to visit
Reuben on the morning of his return home, they hide the bonds under the
carpet of the sitting-room, and leave the house in charge of Taddy,
another adopted son.)

* * * * *

Mr. Ducklow had scarcely turned the corner of the street, when, looking
anxiously in the direction of his homestead, he saw a column of smoke.
It was directly over the spot where he knew his house to be situated. He
guessed at a glance what had happened. The frightful catastrophe he
foreboded had befallen. Taddy had set the house afire.

"Them bonds! them bonds!" he exclaimed, distractedly. He did not think
so much of the house: house and furniture were insured; if they were
burned the inconvenience would be great indeed, and at any other time
the thought of such an event would have been a sufficient cause for
trepidation; but now his chief, his only anxiety was the bonds. They
were not insured. They would be a dead loss. And, what added sharpness
to his pangs, they would be a loss which he must keep a secret, as he
had kept their existence a secret,--a loss which he could not confess,
and of which he could not complain. Had he not just given his neighbors