For years cared for by a drunken old hag, with only a faint remembrance of a sweet, sad face before that, she had lost even such a squalid home as she had when the hag died.
Then she had come with the Morris family.
And well did they love her.
Mrs. Morris loved her like a daughter, and Mat loved her much better than a sister. And Helen returned the latter's deep regard.
While no word had openly been spoken, it was tacitly understood by all three that some day, when Mat and Helen were old enough, and the circumstances permitted, they were to be married.
Mat was of slight build, of lithe and willowy frame, in which, however, resided an amount of strength which few would have dreamed possible.
He was just eighteen.
There is an old saying—"that it never rains but it pours."
It seems true sometimes.
Helen, employed in a situation bringing her three dollars a week, had also come home with the news of having been discharged.