or fifty times that sum.  Well, they were grown up, his sons and daughters, and the only change in their lives now would come from wise or unwise marriages.  No poverty-stricken sons-in-law would ever come into the family, with Mrs. Hamilton standing at the bars, he was sure of that!  As for the boys, they might choose their mates in Texas or China; they might even have chosen them now, for aught he knew, though Jack was only twenty-six and Tom twenty-two.  He must write to them oftener, all of them, no matter how busy and anxious he might be; especially to Tom, who was so far away.

He drew a sheet of paper towards him, and having filled it, another, and yet another.  Having folded and slipped it into an envelope and addressed it to Thomas Hamilton, Esq., Hong Kong, China, he was about to seal it when he stopped a moment.  “I’ll enclose the little Carey girl’s letter,” he thought.  “Tom’s the only one who cares a penny for the old house, and I’ve told him I have rented it.  He’s a generous boy, and he won’t grudge a few dollars lost to a good cause.  Besides, these Careys will increase the value of the property every year they live in it, and without them the buildings would gradually have fallen into ruins.”  He added a postscript to his letter, saying:  “I’ve sent you little Miss Nancy’s letter, the photograph of her tying up the rambler rose, and the family group; so that you can see exactly what influenced me to write her (and Bill Harmon) that they should be undisturbed in their tenancy, and that their repairs and improvements should be taken in lieu of rent.”  This done and the letters stamped, he put the photographs of his wife and children here and there on his desk and left the office.

Oh! it is quite certain that Mother Carey’s own chickens go out over the seas and show good birds the way home; and it is quite true, as she said, “One real home always makes another, I am sure of that!” It can even send a vision of a home across fields and forests and lakes and oceans from Beulah village to Breslau, Germany, and on to Hong Kong, China.

XXII

CRADLE GIFTS

Mrs. Henry Lord sent out a good many invitations to the fairies for Cyril’s birthday party, but Mr. Lord was at his critical point in the first volume of his text book, and forgot that he had a son.  Where both parents are not interested in these little affairs, something is sure to be forgotten.  Cyril’s mother was weak and ill at the time, and the upshot of it was that the anger of The Fairy Who Wasn’t Invited was visited on the baby Cyril in his cradle.  In the revengeful spirit of that fairy who is omitted from these functions, she sent a threat instead of a blessing, and decreed that Cyril should walk in fear all the days of his life.  Of course, being a fairy, she knew very well that, if Cyril, or anybody very much interested in Cyril, went to declare that there was no power whatever behind her curse, she would not be able to gratify her spite; but she knew also, being a fairy, that if Cyril got into the habit of believing himself a coward, he would end by being one, so she stood a good chance of winning, after all.