you go and put no more of the kids in my bed. Jack and Gus kick the
stuffin' out of me now."

And with this parting injunction he went wearily out into the night,
giving up his struggle with Minerva, only to begin the next round with
Bacchus.

The seeds of ambition, though sown late, grew steadily, and Joe became
so desirous of proving worthy of the consideration of Mrs. Beaver that
he took the boss of the shops partially into his confidence.

"It's a first-rate idea, Joe," said the boss, a big, capable fellow who
had worked his way up from the bottom. "I could move you right along the
line if you had a better education. I have a good offer up in Chicago
next year; if you can get more book sense in your head, I will take you
along."

"Where can I get it at?" asked Joe, somewhat dubious of his own power
of achievement.

"Night school," said the boss. "I know a man that teaches in the
Settlement over on Burk Street. I'll put you in there if you like."

Now, the prospect of going to school to a man who had been head of a
family for seven years, who had been the champion scrapper of the South
End, who was in the midst of a critical love affair, was trebly
humiliating. But Joe was game, and while he determined to keep the
matter as secret as possible, he agreed to the boss's proposition.

"You're mighty stingy with yourself these days!" said Mittie Beaver one
night a month later, when he stopped on his way to school.

Joe grinned somewhat foolishly. "I come every evenin'," he said.

"For 'bout ten minutes," said Mittie, with a toss of her voluminous
pompadour; "there's some wants more'n ten minutes."

"Ben Schenk?" asked Joe, alert with jealousy.

"I ain't sayin'," went on Mittie. "What do you do of nights, hang around
the hall?"

"Naw," said Joe indignantly. "There ain't nobody can say they've sawn
me around the hall sence I've went with you!"

"Well, where do you go?"

"I'm trainin'," said Joe evasively.

"I don't believe you like me as much as you used to," said Mittie
plaintively.

Joe looked at her dumbly. His one thought from the time he cooked his
own early breakfast, down to the moment when he undressed in the cold
and dropped into his place in bed between Gussie and Dick, was of her.
The love of her made his back stop aching as he bent hour after hour
over the machine; it made all the problems and hard words and new ideas
at night school come straight at last; it made the whole sordid, ugly
da