Ben Brooks is about to leave his house when his daughters tell him to see his wife in the bedroom before he leaves. He goes to his wife Sadie who is sick and bed and who asks him to get a few coins out of a jug for her. The jug is painted and was won by Sadie in a fair before she married Ben. She gives Ben forty cents and tells him to pick up her earrings from someone in town because her mother died in those earrings and she wants to as well. Ben says she isn’t going to die, but she thinks she is. She tells him not to spend the money on drinks when he goes out. He leaves and finds his friend Sam in town and the two want to drink together, but they don’t have any money and Ben won’t use the money that his wife gave him. They decide to walk around to see if anyone needs a job done so they can get some money, but nobody asks them to do anything. Sam tries to convince Ben to use the money his wife gave him, but Ben says no. He picks up the earrings and then walks home. He is excited to show his wife that he didn’t spend her money on drinks, but when he gets inside his daughters tell him that his wife died while he was gone. The next day a friendly neighbor, Mrs. Lowell, comes to console the family and help with the funeral arrangements. The daughters express a concern that now that their mother is dead, that Ben is going to sell all of her valuables to buy alcohol. Ben goes to his wife's body and gives her the earrings and then tells his daughters that they can divide up all of her things for themselves, but to also give something to Mrs. Lowell because she was so nice to Sadie before she died. Ben goes to rest and the girls quietly go and find all of their mother’s valuables and begin to divide them up between the two of them. They can’t think of anything to give Mrs. Lowell and seem to greedily take all that they can. Ben comes to them and asks what they are giving to Mrs. Lowell, but they still haven’t decided. They decide to wrap up the jug that their mother won in a fair and give it to their father to give to Mrs. Lowell. Ben begins to take it to Mrs. Lowell, but realizes it’s the jug and wants to take it back. He hesitates, but then takes it to Mrs. Lowell and tells her the story of how Sadie got it.