utted and muddy all through the
early spring, after the snow had gone.

A few of the merchants patterned after Hopewell Drugg, brightened up
their stores, and exposed only fresh goods for sale. But these few
changes only made the general run of Poketown institutions appear more
slovenly. The contrast was that of a new pair of shoes, or a glossy
hat, on a ragged beggar!

With Janice on one side to spur him, and Miss 'Rill's unbounded faith
in him on the other hand, how _could_ Hopewell Drugg fall back into the
old aimless existence which had cursed him when first Janice had taken
an interest in his little Lottie, his store, and himself?

But, of course, Hopewell could not _make_ trade. He had gained his
full share of the Poketown patronage, and held all his old customers.
But the profits of the business accumulated slowly. As this second
winter drew to a close the storekeeper confessed to Janice that he had
only saved a little over three hundred dollars altogether towards the
betterment of Lottie's condition.

Janice began secretly to complain. Her heart bled for the child, shut
away in the dark and silence. If only Daddy would grow suddenly very
wealthy out of the mine! Or if some fairy godmother would come to
little Lottie's help!

The person who seemed nearest like a fairy godmother to the child was
Miss 'Rill. She spent a great deal of her spare time with the
storekeeper's daughter. Sometimes she went to Mr. Drugg's cottage
alone; but oftener she had Lottie around to the rooms she occupied with
her mother on High Street.

"I declare for't, 'Rill," sputtered old Mrs Scattergood, one day when
Janice happened to be present, "you'll have the hull town talkin'
abeout you. You're in an' aout of Hopewell Drugg's jest as though you
belonged there."

"I'm surely doing no harm, mother," said the little spinster, mildly.
"Everyone knows how this poor child needs somebody's care."

"Wal! let the 'somebody' be somebody else," snapped the old lady. "I
sh'd think you'd be ashamed."

"Ashamed of what, mother?" asked Miss 'Rill, with more spirit than she
usually displayed.

"You know well enough what I mean. Folks will say you're flingin'
yourself at Hopewell Drugg's head. An' after all these years, too.
I----"

"Mother!" exclaimed her daughter, in a low voice, but earnestly.
"Don't you think you did harm enough long, long ago, without beginning
on that tack now?"

"There! that's the thanks one gets when