iable. The story has spread through the town
in exaggerated forms. He has tried to get work elsewhere and on that
account failed. I cannot see what is before the boy unless you can
forgive and take him back, for it is here only, it seems both to him and
to me, that he can redeem himself. I ask you to take him on a month's
trial, and I wish to give bonds for his good behavior. I am Mrs. John
Scott."

This, then, was Mrs. Scott's idea of which she had spoken. Surely a
convincing one. She opened her purse, took five ten-dollar bills
therefrom and handed them to the young livery-stable keeper.

Mr. Conover looked at her in astonishment, slowly rubbing his
smooth-shaven head.

"I--Mrs. Scott," he said, with earnestness, "I don't want to take the
money. I begin to see how it is; I see you're right. To tell the truth,
I was afraid I'd been a little hard on the boy. I knew that young cur of
a Freeman was to blame for it, and I was sorry on the girl's account and
all; but I was hasty, I suppose. I shouldn't have done anything, though,
about taking him back; but now that you've made me see it plainer yet,
and if he's in such a bad fix as all that, why, I'll give him another
chance," said the young man. "But never mind the money; I'll try him."

"Keep it," Mrs. Scott answered, "and if he does not do his best, it is
forfeited. I think he will."

Poor Collin! Perhaps in all the course of his troubles he had known no
sharper moment than that. He looked around the group. Several of the
stable-hands had gathered, Sim Miles, with a broadly smiling face, being
among them.

The tears sprung to Collin's honest blue eyes. Nor was he ashamed of
them.

"I _will_ do my best," was all he could say.

"All right; come around to-morrow, Spencer," said Mr. Conover, bluffly,
seeing that the scene threatened to be rather a moving one, and he went
back to his business.

CHAPTER XX.

An Important Letter.

His visitors turned away.

Rosalie, whose triumph was supreme, could not wholly control herself.
She gave an occasional hop as they went.

Trudy's face shone, and her eyes were starry. As for Collin, he felt
that silence was best.

"Go and tell your mother, Collin," Trudy whispered. "You won't be afraid
to see her _now_."

"I'm going there," Collin answered--they stood at the corner of his
street. "I'll go; and all I can say is, that I shan't ever forget what
you've all done for me. You've saved m