o_ things with the scholars," he said, gravely.
"I have just begun to realize it. It seems easy for me to make them
understand. But the profession doesn't give one the freedom that the
law does, for instance."

Janice had made no further comment, nor did Nelson advance anything
more regarding the work offered by the college in question.

She had her own intense interests, now and then. Clean-Up Day was past
but its effect in Poketown was ineradicable. Janice was satisfied that
there were enough people finally awake in the town to surely, if
slowly, revolutionize the place.

How could one householder drop back into the old, shiftless, careless
manner of living when his neighbors' places on either hand were so
trim? The carelessly-kept shop showed up a hundred per cent. worse
than it had before Clean-Up Day. Even old Bill Jones kept in some
trim, and the meat markets began to rival each other in cleanliness.

The taxpayers began to speak with pride of Poketown. When they visited
Middletown, or other villages that had previously looked down on the
hillside hamlet above the lake, they were apt to say:

"Just come over and see our town. What? You ain't been in Poketown in
two years? No wonder you don't know what you're talking about! Why,
we put it all over you fellows here for clean streets, and shops, and
nice-lookin' lawns and all that--and our school!"

Poketownites were proud of the reading-room, too, although Mr. Massey's
store was becoming a cramped place for it now. The shelves devoted to
the circulating library were well crowded. The state appropriation had
been spent carefully, and the new, well-bound books looked "mighty
handsome" when visitors came into the place.

But the original intention for the place had never been lost sight of.
It had been made for the boys and young men of Poketown. They had
fully appreciated it, and, Elder Concannon's prophecy to the contrary
notwithstanding, the reading-room was never the scene of disorderly
conduct.

Janice hoped the day would come when the reading-room association
should have a building of its own,--not an expensive, ornate structure
for which the taxpayers would be burdened, and the up-keep of which
would keep the association poor for years; but a snug, warm, cheerful
place which would actually be a club for the boys, and offer all the
other benefits of a free library.

She knew already just where the building ought to stand. There was a
cer