ulate you sincerely!"

"But it is found that the two schools are more than we can attend to. I
propose to give up one. Now, if you choose to take the boys' school off
my hands, I will make over my entire interest in it to you. Perhaps you
may know the character the school sustains. We have, as pupils, sons of
the Honorable Henry Clay, William Wirt, Southard, and other eminent men.
The income amounts to something like eight hundred a year. You can go in
next Monday, if you like."

Thus suddenly the door, so long mysteriously closed, flew open wide, "on
golden hinges turning." What Salmon saw within was heaven. He was
dazzled. He was almost stunned with happiness. His lips quivered, his
voice failed him as he spoke.

"Mr. Plumley, this is--you are--too kind!"

"You accept?"

"Most gratefully!"

The young man was regaining possession of himself. He grasped the
other's hand.

"You do not know what this is to me, Sir! You cannot know from what you
have saved me! Providence has surely sent you to me! I cannot thank you
now; but some day--perhaps--it may be in my power to do you a service."

He was not the only one happy. Mr. Plumley felt the sweetness of doing a
kind action for one who was truly worthy and grateful. From that moment
they were friends. Salmon engaged to see him again, and make
arrangements for entering the school the next Monday; and they parted.

His benefactor gone, Salmon hastened to tell the good news to Mrs.
Markham. But he could not remain in the house. His joy was too great to
be thus confined. Again he went out,--but how different now the world
looked to his eyes! He had not observed before that it was such a lovely
spring day. The sky overhead was of heaven's deepest hue. The pure,
sweet air was like the elixir of life. The hills were wondrously
beautiful, all about the city; and it seemed, that, whichever way he
turned, there were birds singing in sympathy with his joy. The Potomac,
stretching away with soft and misty glimmer between its hazy banks, was
like the river of some exquisite dream.

It was no selfish happiness he felt. He thought of his mother and
sisters at home,--of all those to whom he was indebted; and in the
lightness of his spirit, after its heavy burden had been taken away, he
lifted up his heart in thanksgiving to the Giver of all blessings.

The school, transferred to his charge, continued successful; and it
opened the way to successes of greater magnitude. Through al