24 THE LAST PENNY.

 

off in health. He could work as many
hours, and with as little fatigue; in fact,
he found himself brighter in the morning,
and ready to go to his work earlier, by
which he was able to increase, at least a
shilling or two, his weekly income. Added
to the comfort of his family, eight or ten
pounds a year produced a great change.
But the greatest change was in little Lizzy.
For a few weeks, every penny saved from
the beer and tobacco the father regularly
expended for his sick child: and it soon
became apparent that it was nourishing
food, more than medicine, that Lizzy needed.
She revived wonderfully; and no long time
passed before she could sit up for hours.
Her little tongue, too, became free once
more, and many an hour of labour did her
voice again beguile. And the blessing of
better food came also in time to the other
children, and to all.

“So much to come from the right spend-
ing of a single penny,” Claire said to him-