"
When the couple reached home, Sam looked at the long heap of straw and
rags on which his children should have been sleeping, but which was
without occupant except the baby. Then, by the light of the coals still
remaining in the fire-place, he looked through some leaves of the
little book which the prison visitor had given him. When he arose from
the floor, he said to himself,--
"I'll stick to Him yet, deacon or no deacon,--stick to Him as if He was
Andrew Jackson."
CHAPTER V.
Sam Kimper spent several days in looking about his native town for
work. He found many sympathetic assurances, some promises, and no work
at all. Everybody explained to everybody else that they were sorry for
the poor wretch, but they couldn't afford to have a jail-bird around.
Meanwhile, Sam's stock of money, accumulated by overwork in the State
prison, and augmented by Judge Prency's present, was running low. He
kept his family expenses as low as possible, buying only the plainest
of food-material and hesitating long to break a bill, though it were
only of the denomination of one dollar. Nevertheless the little wad of
paper money in his pocket grew noticeably thinner to his touch.
His efforts to save the little he had in his possession were not
assisted by his family. His wife, thanks and perhaps blame to the
wifely sense of dependence upon her husband, had fallen back upon him
entirely after what he had said about his intention as to the future of
the family, and she not only accepted his assurances as bearing upon
the material requirements of several mouths from day to day, but she
also built some air-castles which he was under the unpleasant necessity
of knocking down.
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