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MY OLD DUTCH
37
ness because we wanted to, and now we have learned to love you, so that it would spoil our pleasure in your recovery to take your money. Keep it all for your studies. ' '
So Clive departed, full of hope and joy, and the old couple, left alone, gazed at each other with wet eyes.
"He was a dear boy," declared Mrs. Hawkins, "and I dont regret a bit of it."
"Nor I," replied the husband; "and now, old girl, 'My Old Dutch,' we will begin to save for the cottage again."
Two years passed by, and Mrs. Hawkins, round and good-natured as ever, continued to sell the greengroceries in the little shop, while Mr. Hawkins made his daily trips with the donkey cart. Trade was good and the business was profitable, yet a little frown of anxiety showed between the round, black eyes as the shopkeeper stood in the doorway, awaiting the return of the donkey cart.
"It seems as if we ought to get the money from our mines," she said to herself; "they said we would get it in six months, and it has been over a year. Bill's worried, I know, but there cant be anything wrong. Ned Barker wouldn't have persuaded us to buy the stock if it hadn't been all right."
She wTas uneasy, and felt relieved when the familiar cart appeared in the distance. But, as it drew near, one glance at her husband's face told her something was wrong. He was holding a newspaper in his shaking hands, and his face was white as he came into the shop and put his arms about her.
"It's come!" he said, brokenly. "It's all here in the paper. The Consolidated Empire Mining Company was a fraud. That Morton that sold us the shares was a crook, and Ned must have known it. We are ruined, old girl ! "We will lose this place, and we '11 never have our cottage ! ' '
For a moment the woman seemed crushed. They had been so happy in the thought of the great investment
which their false friend had persuaded them to make. Their confidence had been so implicit. They had looked so eagerly for the promised returns, which would give them their longtalked-of home. Now it was all gone !
But the sight of her husband, sinking into a chair, shaking with sols,
"we are ruined/ he said
brought all the woman's love and strength to the surface. Kneeling beside him, she took his hands in hers.
"We will get along, somehow," she declared bravely ; "we are not too old to work, and, whatever we have lost, we have each other yet. Maybe it's not so bad as the paper says."
Alas ! it was even worse than the paper said, and within a week the dreaded bailiff was in the little shop, making an inventory of the furniture. Hawkins, his head bowed upon his hands, sat, the picture of utter misery, while this was going on.
"I wouldn't care so much for mvself, 'My Old Dutch,' " he groaned, "but you've worked so hard, and I bought the stock and lost all the money!"
"No," declared the wife, "we bought it together, and we've lost it together, and we are together yet.