laughed Dave Darrin.

"It ought to," smiled Tom Reade.

"Don't you think we could get our mothers something pretty nice with two
dollars apiece?" asked Harry Hazelton speculatively.

"I couldn't get anything nice enough for my mother with two dollars,
when I have more money," Dick replied promptly.

Hazelton's money-saving plan was promptly voted down.

"So now," proposed Dick, "all we have to do is to hurry home and hustle!
Beat your way to it, fellows!"

"Hurrah!" Greg gasped.

Hurrying along Main Street, through the crowds of Christmas shoppers,
the Grammar School boys were on the point of parting, to go their
several ways homeward, when they came upon a scene that halted them.

More than two dozen people, mostly women, had gathered around a
shabby-looking man who was clutching wildly at a lamp post, and yet
seemed in momentary danger of falling. His lips were thickly covered
with foam, his eyes glaring, and the fellow was talking wildly, in low
tones, as though to himself.

"Come away and leave him. He's intoxicated," announced one woman
shrilly.

"He's not intoxicated," responded another matron indignantly. "There is
no odor of liquor about the poor man. And drunken men don't froth at the
mouth. This poor fellow is ill--very ill. It must be a fit--maybe
epilepsy. Some of you women who have a little more brains and heart than
others help me to take this poor fellow to the drug store."

There were willing hands enough, now, among the women. Three or four
tried to take hold of the sufferer at once. That victim of an unknown
malady clutched and gripped at the good Samaritans as they tried to
steer him along the street toward the drug store. To hold him up was all
four women could do together, so progress along the street was slow
indeed.

"Here comes Dr. Bentley in his auto. Stop him, some one!"

The doctor quickly ran his car in toward the curb and leaped out. A fine
man and a busy physician, Dr. Bentley was never too much occupied to
stop and help an unfortunate man.

Dr. Bentley's big frame and broad shoulders loomed up in the crowd.

"Let me have the man on one side," urged the doctor. "One of you ladies
might help hold him on the other side."

"What's the matter with the man, doctor?" cried several.

"Really, ladies, I can't tell until I've had a chance to examine the
man. It may be a fit of some sort. I think likely it is. But we will get
him to the drug store first, and into the back room.