the great-grandmother, who had staked and lost her little all in the great calamity.
"But Uncle Joe was sinned against, grannie dear. How he must have suffered!"
"Them that's sinned against are often greater sufferers than them that sins," was the sad reply.
"When the bail was jumped, the hard times set in with all of us," resumed the grandfather. "The banks, as I was saying, went broke, the interest on the mortgages piled up, and the notes fell due. The crops got the rust and the weevil, and everything else went wrong. You see, Jean, when a man starts down hill, everybody tries to give him a kick. The long and the short of it is that mother, here, and grannie and I have been the same as paupers for more than a dozen years."
"I must be going, though you must first tell me how you two and dear old grannie are going to live when we are away in Oregon. Your way seems very uncertain," said Jean.
"Your father has made some kind of a bargain for our support with your Uncle Lije. But he's sort o' visionary, and he never has much luck. If he loses the property, we can go to the poorhouse."
"Are you to be allowed no stated sum to live on? Will you have no means of your own to gratify your individual wishes or tastes?"
"No, child; not a picayune."
"What's a picayune?"
"A six-and-a-quarter-cent piece."
"I 'm just as wise as I was before."
"They 're wellnigh out o* circulation nowadays, though I used to come across 'em frequently when I was sheriff," said the old man.
Jean covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.
Don't worry about us, dearie," said the old man.
There is One above us who heareth even the young
