. Lead me
to this lunch, fair maiden, and I'll tell you nothing but the plain,
unvarnished truth. But even at that, I'm afraid you'll think I'm
romancing."

The merry group seated themselves at the table, and Clara, all alive with
curiosity, demanded the fulfilment of Jim's promise.

"Well," said Jim, "the simple truth is that that fellow who was here this
morning offered Joe sixty-five thousand dollars for three years' work."

Mrs. Matson almost dropped her knife and fork in her amazement. Mr. Matson
sat up with a jerk, and Clara's eyes opened to their widest extent.

"Sixty-five thousand dollars!" gasped Joe's father.

"For three years' work!" exclaimed Mrs. Matson.

"Why," stammered Clara, "that's--that's--let me see--why, that's more than
twenty-one thousand dollars a year."

"That's what," replied Jim, keenly relishing the sensation he was causing.
"And it wasn't stage money either. He had brought twenty thousand dollars
with him in bills, and he laid it down on the table as carelessly as
though it was twenty cents. And all that this modest youth, who sits
beside me and isn't saying a word, had to do to get that money was to put
his name on a piece of paper."

"Joe," exclaimed Clara, "do tell us what all this means! Jim is just
trying to tantalize us."

"Stung!" grinned Jim. "That's what comes from mixing in family matters."

"Why, it's this way, Sis," laughed Joe. "That fellow traveled a thousand
miles to call me a hick. I wouldn't stand for it and made him take it back
and then he got mad and skipped."

"Momsey," begged Clara in desperation, "can't you make these idiots tell
us just what happened?"

"Them cruel woids!" ejaculated Jim mournfully.

"Do tell us, Joe!" entreated his mother. "I'm just dying to know all about
it."

Teasing his mother was a very different thing from teasing Clara, who was
an adept at that art herself, and Joe surrendered immediately.

They forgot to eat--all except Jim, who seldom carried forgetfulness so
far--while he told them about Westland's call and his proposition to Joe
to break his contract and jump to the new league.

Sixty-five thousand dollars was a staggering amount of money, a fortune,
in fact, in that quiet town, and yet there was not one of that little
family who didn't rejoice that Joe had turned the offer down.

"You did the right thing, Joe," said his father heartily; "and the fact
that lots of people would call you foolish doesn't change things in