sudden thought
popped into her head.

"Go into town, and do the errands?" asked Dan, looking interested at
once.

"Yes; Franz is tired of it, Silas cannot be spared just now, and Mr.
Bhaer has no time. Old Andy is a safe horse, you are a good driver, and
know your way about the city as well as a postman. Suppose you try it,
and see if it won't do most as well to drive away two or three times a
week as to run away once a month."

"I'd like it ever so much, only I must go alone and do it all myself. I
don't want any of the other fellows bothering round," said Dan, taking
to the new idea so kindly that he began to put on business airs already.

"If Mr. Bhaer does not object you shall have it all your own way. I
suppose Emil will growl, but he cannot be trusted with horses, and you
can. By the way, to-morrow is market-day, and I must make out my list.
You had better see that the wagon is in order, and tell Silas to have
the fruit and vegetables ready for mother. You will have to be up early
and get back in time for school, can you do that?"

"I'm always an early bird, so I don't mind," and Dan slung on his jacket
with despatch.

"The early bird got the worm this time, I'm sure," said Mrs. Jo,
merrily.

"And a jolly good worm it is," answered Dan, as he went laughing away to
put a new lash to the whip, wash the wagon, and order Silas about with
all the importance of a young express-man.

"Before he is tired of this I will find something else and have it ready
when the next restless fit comes on," said Mrs. Jo to herself, as she
wrote her list with a deep sense of gratitude that all her boys were not
Dans.

Mr. Bhaer did not entirely approve of the new plan, but agreed to give
it a trial, which put Dan on his mettle, and caused him to give up
certain wild plans of his own, in which the new lash and the long
hill were to have borne a part. He was up and away very early the next
morning, heroically resisting the temptation to race with the milkmen
going into town. Once there, he did his errands carefully, to Mr.
Bhaer's surprise and Mrs. Jo's great satisfaction. The Commodore did
growl at Dan's promotion, but was pacified by a superior padlock to his
new boat-house, and the thought that seamen were meant for higher honors
than driving market-wagons and doing family errands. So Dan filled
his new office well and contentedly for weeks, and said no more about
bolting. But one day Mr. Bhaer found him pummelling Jack, wh