the wily Janice. "Not a place to
smoke those nasty cigarettes in, and carry on; but a real reading-room,
with books, and papers, and games, and all that."

"Oh, that would be fine! But where'd we get that kind of a place in
Poketown?" queried Marty.

That was the start of it.

There was an empty store on High Street next to the drug store. It was a
big room which could be easily heated by a pot stove and a few lengths
of stovepipe. It was owned by the drug-store man, and had been empty a
long time. He asked six dollars a month rent for it.

It was just about this time that Janice learned she possessed powers of
persuasive eloquence. The druggist was the first person she "tackled" in
her campaign.

"It's a secret, Mr. Massey," she told him; "but some of the boys want a
reading-room, and some of the rest of us are anxious to help them get
it. Only it mustn't be talked of at first, or it will be all spoiled.
You know how 'fraid boys are that there is going to be a trap set for
them."

"Ain't that so?" chuckled the druggist.

"And we want your empty room next door."

"Wa-al--I dunno!" returned the man, finding the matter suddenly serious,
when it was brought so close home to him.

"Of course, we expect to pay for it. Only we'd like to have you cut the
rent in two for the first three months," said Janice, quickly.

"Say! that might be all right," the druggist observed, more briskly.
"But I don't know about all these harum-scarums collecting around this
corner. I have been glad heretofore that they have hung around
Pringle's, or Joe Henderson's, or the hotel, instead of up here. They've
been up to all sorts of mischief."

"If they don't behave reasonably they'll lose the reading-room. Of
course that will be understood," said Janice.

"You can't trust some of 'em," growled the druggist. "Never!"

"We'll make those who want the reading-room make the mischievous ones
behave," laughed Janice.

"Well," agreed the druggist, "we'll try it. Three dollars a month for
three months; then six dollars. I can afford no more."

"So much for so much!" whispered Janice, when she came away from the
store. "At least, it's a beginning."

But it was a very small beginning, as she soon began to realize. She had
no money to give toward the project herself, and it was very hard to beg
from some people, even for a good cause.

There was needed at least one long table and two small ones, as well as
some sort of a desk for whoever