“Oh, nonsense!” cried Kate, “What’s one fall? A man ought not to mind such a thing as that. Do as you did when you were a little boy, pick yourself up and run on again.”
“That’s easy enough to say, but hard to do. To begin with, I am disgraced and penniless.”
“Penniless!” echoed Kate, ignoring the other word. “Well, I can remedy that. It’s just what I came to tell you about. I went to the office first, and they said you had gone home. So I came up here. There, sir; now you are not penniless.”
While she spoke she had been unlocking a ridiculous little bag that hung from her arm, and now, taking from it a roll of bills, she thrust them into her brother’s hand.
“Why, Kate, what is this? Where did you get hold of so much money?” exclaimed Myles.
“Earned it, sir!”
“Earned it! You earned it?”
“Yes. I have been trying for it all summer long. I’ve sent drawing after drawing to every illustrated paper and magazine in the country, and they have all been returned, until last week, when I had one accepted at W—— ’s.”
“At W—— ’s!” interrupted Myles, to whom such a piece of good fortune seemed almost incredible.
“Yes, sir, at W—— ’s. The very place of all others in which I most wished to succeed, and where I had the least hope of doing so. They sent a note saying that it was accepted, and I came in town this morning to get the money for it. Twenty-five dollars they gave me. What do you think of that? And it’s all yours, you dear old fellow you! every cent of it. Oh, I’m so proud and glad that it came just at this time, when you needed it so much! And they praised the drawing and gave me an order for another. It is to illustrate a short story, and I’ve got the manuscript here to take home and read and get an inspiration from. Oh, Myles, why can’t you write stories and let me illustrate them? It would be the most splendid thing in the world.