child?"

"You'd have had trouble then, and no mistake."

"Wouldn't I? Blast her little picture! What business has she
creeping in here every night?"

"She must have a nice kind of a mother," remarked Green, with a
cold sneer.

"I don't know what she is now," said Slade, a slight touch of
feeling in his voice--"heart-broken, I suppose. I couldn't look at
her last night; it made me sick. But there was a time when Fanny
Morgan was the loveliest and best woman in Cedarville. I'll say
that for her. Oh, dear! What a life her miserable husband has
caused her to lead."

"Better that he were dead and out of the way."

"Better a thousand times," answered Slade. "If he'd only fall down
some night and break his neck, it would be a blessing to his
family."

"And to you in particular," laughed Green.

"You may be sure it wouldn't cost me a large sum for mourning,"
was the unfeeling response.

Let us leave the bar-room of the "Sickle and Sheaf," and its cold-
hearted inmates, and look in upon the family of Joe Morgan, and