And then something happened to Andy. His mother, disgusted at the conduct of the little boys, put her arm around his neck and kissed him.
"It's a jewel you are, Andy," she said, "with good understandin' in you. You'll be wakin' up Pat in the noight some day."
"Huh!" thought jealous little Jim, who was only feigning sleep.
"Now, mother," said Pat when the tiny lamp stood once more on the kitchen table, and the two sat beside the stove, "will you give up two of your wash places?"
"Not I, Pat dear. With six of us, not countin' you and not countin' Moike, who cares for himsilf, we need all the money we can honestly get."
"Only one, then, mother; only one. My good luck is no comfort to me if I can't think of your getting a day's rest every week out of it."
The widow regarded him earnestly. She saw how her refusal would pain him and she yielded. "Well, then," she said, "wan place, Pat dear, I'll give up. And it'll be Wednesday, because 'twas on a Wednesday that your luck come to you."
Another month went by and the holiday trade was over. Nevertheless the amount of custom at Mr. Farnham's did not diminish much. Ladies who went out on looking tours, if they began at Farnham's ended there by purchasing. If they stopped first at Wall's they went on to Farnham's and bought there. Mr. Wall was not blind. And so, one day General Brady walked into Mr. Farnham's store and back to his desk again.
"Another rise?" asked the merchant laughingly.
"Something of the sort," was the rejoinder. "Mr. Wall offers forty dollars a month for Pat."