cted in her mind with another
train of thought that, until now, had had "the right of way" in her
inner consciousness. What had Jack Besmith to do with Nelson Haley's
troubles?

Janice Day was puzzled.

CHAPTER XVIII

HOPEWELL SELLS HIS VIOLIN

Janice Day had no intention of avoiding what seemed, finally, to be a
duty laid upon her. If everybody else in Polktown opposed to the sale
of liquor, merely complained about it--and in a hopeless, helpless
way--it was not in her disposition to do so. She was Broxton Day's own
daughter and she absolutely had to _do something_! She was imbued with
her father's spirit of helpfulness, and she believed thoroughly in his
axiom: If a thing is wrong, go at it and make it right.

Of course, Janice knew very well that a young girl like herself could
do little in reality about this awful thing that had stalked into
Polktown. She could do nothing of her own strength to put down the
liquor traffic. But she believed she might set forces in motion which,
in the end, would bring about the much-desired reformation.

She had done it before. Her inspiration had touched all of Polktown
and had awakened and rejuvenated the old place. She had learned that
all that the majority of people needed to rank them on the active side
of right, was to be made to think. She determined that Polktown should
be made to think upon this subject of liquor selling.

After school she drove around by the Upper Road and branched off into a
woods path that she had not dared venture into the week before. The
Spring winds had done much to dry this woodroad and there were not many
mud-holes to drive around before she came in sight of the squatters'
cabin occupied by the family of Mr. Trimmins.

This transplanted family of Georgia "crackers" had been a good deal of
a misfit in the Vermont community until Janice had found and interested
herself in them. Virginia, a black-haired sprite of eleven or twelve,
was the leader of the family in all things, although there were several
older children. But "Jinny" was born to be a commander.

Having made a friend of the little witch of a girl, and of Buddy, who
had been the baby the year before, but whose place had been usurped
because of the advent of another tow-head into the family, the others
of "them Trimminses," as they were spoken of in Polktown, had become
Janice Day's staunch friends. Virginia and two of her sisters came
regularly to the meetings of