gs and prejudices; but he backed
up the young people in their attempt to freshen up the old church. He
mingled with them more than ever he had before; and from that contact
with their young and hopeful natures he carried into his pulpit a more
joyful outlook upon life. Mr. Middler was growing, along with his young
people, and he really preached a sermon now and then in which there
wasn't a doctrinal argument!

Not that Janice held a very important position in the young people's
society. But she had belonged to one back in Greensboro, in her own
beloved church, and she had helped form this Poketown organization. She
would not take office in this new society, for all the time she hoped
that her father's affairs would change and they might be together again.

There was never a day begun that Janice did not hope that this reunion
might be consummated soon; and the desire was a part of her bedside
prayer at night. She was no longer lonely, or even homesick, in
Poketown. She really loved her relatives, and she knew that they loved
her. She had made many friends, and her time was fairly well occupied.

But her longing for Daddy seemed to grow with the lapse of time. She
wanted to see him so much that it actually _hurt_ when she allowed
herself to think about it!

"Ain't you ever goin' to be still a minute, Janice?" complained her aunt
frequently. "You're hoppin' 'round all the time jest like a hen on a hot
skillet, I declare for't!"

"Why, Aunt 'Mira," she told the good lady, "I couldn't possibly sit with
my hands folded. I'd rather work on the treadmill than do _that_."

"You wait till you've worked as many years as I have--an' got as leetle
for it," said Aunt 'Mira, shaking her head. "You won't be so spry," and
with that she buried herself in her story paper again.

There was an improvement, however, even in Aunt 'Mira. She could not
leave the "love stories" alone, and if she had a particularly exciting
one, she would sit down in her chair in the middle of the kitchen floor
and let the breakfast dishes go till noon.

Usually, however, she "slicked up," as she called it, after dinner,
instead of spending her time on the sofa, and sometimes she and Janice
went calling with their needlework, like the other ladies up and down
Hillside Avenue, or had some of the neighbors in to call on them.

Aunt 'Mira had spent some of Janice's board money on the furnishings of
the house as well as in silk dresses and automobile veils.