Do you know what’s the matter with this household? You’ve all been sitting around weeping and wailing. No wonder little Nannie thought she was going to die. No wonder your wife is almost dead on her feet and everything is all wrong. Do you know where we found your son? Out in the grass, crying because he thought you were going to die, too. Now, brother, let’s see what’s wrong with you.” And the doctor stepped determinedly over to the father and laid a professional hand on his wrist and then on his forehead.

“I thought so,” he said, getting out his thermometer. “You’re way below normal. What are you trying to do, arrange for a family funeral on the town? That’s no way to do.”

“But I can’t pay you, Doctor. I’ve been out all day hunting a job and trying to borrow money, and it’s no go! I can’t get a thing!”

“Yes? Well, if my bill is all you’re worrying about, forget it. Things aren’t always going on this way for you. You’ll get a job. We’ll all help you.”

“But that isn’t all, Doctor. I’m going to lose this house, and there won’t be any place for us to even die in.”

“Oh, fiddlesticks. Here! Take this pill, and I’ll give you another before I go. You talk your troubles over with young Madison, here. He’s a bright young man interested in finance, and ten to one he’ll find some solution for your difficulties. Now, I’m going back to see how Nannie is. And Madison, I leave this man with you to find some solution for his trouble. He can’t go on carrying all this burden and then get up and do a man’s work besides. It isn’t possible. There’s some way out of this, and we’ve got to find it, or I’m not a doctor.”

“Of course!” said Paige cheerily. “Now come, we’ll get you a bite more soup, and some bread and butter, and then you can give me the details.”

The doctor’s eyes twinkled as he looked back on the two and noted the expression on the discouraged father’s face.

Paige lost no time in producing the soup, and saw that every drop of it was swallowed before he said a word about any troubles. Then he put the dish over on the table and came back, drawing up a chair to the old couch.

“Now,” he said, getting out a pencil and paper, “just what is it that’s worrying you most? This house? What makes you think you’re going to lose it?”

“Because they told me that if I missed another payment, that was the end. I’d got to pay up interest and all, or they’d have to close me out. And tomorrow’s the last day. Twelve o’clock they close, tomorrow.”

“Have you got any papers to show for all this?”

“Yes. Over in the drawer of that old desk in the corner of the dining room.”

“Mind if I see them?” asked Paige.

“Oh, sure, but it’s no use to try anything with those folks. They haven’t any hearts. They don’t care if we all die. And I’m dead sure there isn’t anybody would lend a red cent to a poor old failure like me.” The man drew a heavy, discouraged sigh and bowed his head in his hands.

Paige went to the desk and brought back a bundle of papers. To his surprise he saw that they were drawn in the name of Harrison Chalmers and Company, and his heart sank with indignant fury.