run all his factories. Mr. Jardin was a very unwise man who loved
his only son so much that he did not seem able to make him obey. Horace
had not been a bad boy to start with, but twelve years of having his own
way and feeling that, as he said, he could work his father and mother
for anything that trouble could procure or money buy had made him
selfish, grasping and unreliable. Other and graver faults were
developing in him fast, to his mother's amazement and his father's
sorrow.

When Mr. Jardin found that he must go down into the oil fields to look
after his wells there, he was greatly relieved and pleased to find that
he could leave his son with such pleasant people as the Andersons. He
knew that for awhile at least the novelty of being right at an Aviation
Post would keep Horace out of any serious mischief. In a measure he was
right. The discipline and routine, the sharp commands, the rage of the
instructors if anything went even a shade wrong, impressed Horace as he
had never been impressed before. All the good in him came to the
surface; the bad hid itself away.

Unfortunately, however, while Horace was spending his time in what
seemed to all a highly creditable manner, his influence over Frank was
bad, and grew worse as time went on. He absorbed like a sponge every
word of Jardin's boastful tales; he learned a thousand new ways in which
to gain his own ends; he learned to cheat; he learned to lie without the
feeling of guilt and distress that used to bother him when he slipped
from the truth. And most of all, he was made to feel that there was
nothing so necessary as money, money and still more money. Every letter
from Mr. Jardin brought Horace a check for anything from twenty-five to
a hundred dollars, and this money was spent like water.

Frank, who had thought his allowance of a dollar a week a fine and
generous amount, watched Jardin buy his way and squander money in every
direction. Frank commenced to worry about school. It must be as Horace
said: useless to try to be happy or comfortable unless one had a pocket
full of change all the time. He commenced to wish for some money, then
the wish changed, and he wished for a certain sum, the amount he thought
would be sufficient to carry him through the three terms of school. He
made up his mind that he wanted six hundred dollars. Where this vast sum
was to come from he did not know. He knew very well that his father and
mother would not give it to him. He could