"Oh--now--I call that unfair!" he complained. "We can't all be like
you, Janice. I believe you lay awake nights thinking up nice things to
do for folks----"

"There you go again--making fun of me," she said, shaking a gloved
finger at him. "I don't claim to be a bit more unselfish than the next
one. But I'm not lazy."

"Thanks! I suppose I am?"

"There you go--picking one up so quick," Janice repeated. "I _do_
think, however, that you just don't care, a good deal of the time. If
things only go on smoothly----"

"That's what I told you Christmas Day," he said, quickly.

"And isn't it so?"

"Well--it used to be," he admitted, shaking his head ruefully. "But
I'm not sure but that, since you've got me going----"

"_Me?_" exclaimed Janice. "What have _I_ got to do with it?"

"Now, there's no use your saying that you don't know why I took up that
matter of the new school last month," said Nelson Haley, seriously.
"You spoke just as though you were ashamed of me when we talked about
it, and I began to wonder if I wasn't a fit subject for heart-searching
inquiry," and the teacher burst into laughter again.

But Janice felt that he was more serious than usual, and she hastened
to say: "I should really feel proud to know that any word of _mine_
suggested your present course, Mr. Nelson Haley. Why! what a fine
thing that would be."

"What a fine thing _what_ would be?" he demanded.

"To think that I could really influence an educated and clever young
man like you to do something very much worth while in the world.
Nelson, you are flattering me."

"Honest to goodness--it's so," he said, looking at her with a rather
wry smile. "And I'm not at all sure that I thank you for it."

"Why not?"

"See what you've got me into?" he complained. "I've got a whole bunch
of extra work because of the school building, and in the end the old
Elder and his friends may discharge me!"

"But you've brought about the building of a new school, and Poketown
ought always to thank you."

"Likely. And they'll build a monument to me to stand at the head of
High Street, eh?" and he laughed.

"I do not care," said Janice, seriously, and looking up at him with
pride. "_I_ shall thank you. And I shall never forget that you said
it was _my_ little influence that made you do it."

"Your _little_ influence----"

But she hastened to add: "It's a really great thing for me to think of.
And how proud and glad I'll be by and by--