“No one sick over at your house, is there?” demanded the other, anxiously.
“I’m glad to say that isn’t the case,” Carl told him. “Fact is, some bad news came in a letter mother had this morning from a lawyer in the city who manages her small affairs.”
“Was it about that tenement house she owns, and the rents from which comes part of her income?” continued Tom, quick to make a guess, for he knew something about the affairs of Carl’s folks.
The other nodded his head as he went on to explain:
“It burned down, and through some mistake of a clerk part of the insurance was allowed to lapse, so that we will not be able to collect on more than half. Isn’t that hard luck though, Tom?”
“I should say it is,” declared the other, with a look of sympathy on his face. “But if it was the fault of the lawyer’s clerk why shouldn’t he be held responsible for the loss? I’d think that was only fair in the eye of the law.”
“Oh!” said Carl, quickly, “but my mother says he’s really a poor man, and hasn’t anything. Besides, he’s been conducting her little business since father died without charging a cent for his labor, so you see there’s no hope of our collecting more than half of the insurance.”
“Too bad, and I’m mighty sorry,” Tom told him.
“Coming on top of our losing that paper you can imagine how my mother feels,” continued the other; “though she tries to be cheerful, and keeps on telling me she knows everything is sure to come out right in the end. Still I can see that while she puts on a brave face it’s only to keep me from feeling so blue. When she’s all alone I’m sure she cries, for I can see her eyes are red when I happen to come in on her unexpectedly.”
“Nothing can be done, I suppose, Carl?”