mplained. "I
never did think much o' N'York daily papers, nohow. They don't have
'nuff stories in 'em."

But it was her own money Janice spent for the papers. Whenever Daddy had
written he had usually enclosed in his envelope a bank note of small
denomination for Janice. The bank in Greensboro sent the board money
regularly to Uncle Jason (and Aunt 'Mira got it for her own personal
use, as she declared she would), but Janice always had a little in her
pocket.

Had she been well supplied with cash about this time the girl would have
been tempted to run away and take the train for Mexico herself. It did
seem to her, when the weeks went by without a letter reaching her from
her father, as though he must be wounded, and suffering, and needing
her!

But she did not have sufficient money to pay her fare such a long
distance.

Aunt 'Mira was a poor comforter. Yet she fortunately aided in giving
Janice something else to think about just then. The girl had helped
"spruce up" Aunt 'Mira long since, so that they could go to church
together on Sundays. But now the good lady was in the throes of making
herself a silk dress for best--a black silk. It was the thing she had
longed for most, and now she could satisfy the craving for clothes that
had so obsessed her.

Aunt 'Mira loved finery. Janice had to use her influence to the utmost
to keep the good lady from committing the sin of getting this wonderful
dress too "fancy." Left to herself, Mrs. Day would have loaded it with
bead trimming and cut-steel ornaments. At first she even wanted it cut
"minaret" fashion, which would have, in the end, made the poor lady look
a good deal like an overgrown ballet dancer!

Janice had been glad to go to church. Always, before coming to Poketown,
the girl had held a vital interest in church and church work. But here
she found there was really nothing for the young people to do. They had
no society, and aside from the Sunday School, a very cut-and-dried
session usually, there was no special interest for the young.

Mr. Middler, the pastor, was a mild-voiced, softly stepping man,
evidently fearing to give offense. Although he had been in the pastorate
for several years, he seemed to have very little influence in the
community. Elder Concannon and several other older members controlled
the church and its policies utterly; and they frowned on any innovation.

One Sabbath, old Elder Concannon--a grizzled, heavy-eyebrowed man, with
a beak-like