"No. The parson could not let me have it."
"Hark! they have begun the sale. What is it they are crying now?"
"The clock, mother. Oh, this is dreadful."
"They will sell the cow too," said the widow.
"Certain to do so."
"There! I hear the dresser's put up. Who has bought the clock?"
"Oh, never mind, that matters nothing. We are ruined."
"Oh dear, dear!" moaned Mrs. Sharland, "that it should come to this! But I suppose I must, I must indeed. Run, Mehalah, run quick and unrip the belt of my green gown. Quick, fetch it me."
The girl hastily obeyed. The old woman got her knife, and with trembling hand cut away the lining in several parts of the body. Shining sovereigns came out.
"There are twenty here," she said with a sigh, "and we have seven over of what George let us have. Give the wretches the money."
"Mother, mother!" exclaimed Mehalah. "How could you borrow! How could you send me—!"
"Never mind, I did not want to use my little store till every chance had failed. Run out and pay the money."
Mehalah darted from the door.
The clerk was selling the cow. "Going for twenty-five pounds. What? no one bid, going for twenty-five pounds, and dirt cheap at the money; all silent! Well, I never, and such a cow! Going for twenty-three—"
"Stop!" shouted Mehalah. "Here is Mrs. De Witt's money, twenty-five pounds."
"Damnation!" roared Elijah, "where did you get it?"
"Our savings," answered Mehalah, and turned her back on him.
CHAPTER XII
A GILDED BALCONY
Mehalah was hurt and angry at her mother's conduct. She thought that she had not been fairly treated. When the loss sustained presumably by Abraham Dowsing's care-
