promise of something
fine. We should like to prepare him for college or some technical
school and send him through it. He has quite a pronounced bent for
science and given the proper opportunities he might develop into
something beyond the ordinary rank and file."

"Do you think so, sir?" asked Mr. Turner, glowing with pleasure. "Well,
I don't know but that he has a sort of knack with wire, nails, and
queer machinery. He has tinkered with such things since he was a little
lad. Of late he has been fussing round with electricity and scaring us
all to death here at home. His sisters were always expecting he'd meet
his end or blow up the house with some claptraption he'd put together."

Nancy blushed; then added, with a shy glance toward the Fernalds:

"They say down at the school that Ted is quite handy with telephones
and such things."

"Mr. Hazen, my son's tutor, thinks your brother has a knowledge of
electricity far beyond his years," replied Mr. Clarence Fernald. "That
is why it seems a pity his talents in that direction should not be
cultivated. Who knows but he may be an embryo genius? You never can
tell what may be inside a child."

"You're right there, sir," Mr. Turner assented cordially. Then after a
moment of thought, he continued, "Likely an education such as you are
figuring on would cost a mint of money."

The Fernalds, both father and son, smiled at the naive comment.

"Well--yes," confessed Mr. Clarence slowly. "It would cost something."

"A whole lot?"

"If you wanted the best."

Mr. Turner scratched his head.

"I'm afraid I couldn't swing it," declared he, regret in his tone.

"But we are offering to do this for you," put in Grandfather Fernald.

"I know you are, sir; I know you are and I'm grateful," Ted's father
answered. "But if I could manage it myself, I'd----"

"Come, Mr. Turner, I beg you won't say that," interrupted the elder Mr.
Fernald. "Think what we owe to your son. Why, we never in all the world
can repay what he has done for us. This is no favor. We are simply
paying our debts. You like to pay your bills, don't you?"

"Indeed I do, sir!" was the hearty reply. "There's no happier moment
than the one when I take my pay envelope and go to square up what I
owe. True, I don't run up many bills; still, there is not always money
enough on hand to make both ends meet without depending some on
credit."

"How much do you get in the shipping room?"

"Eighty dollars a month, sir."