t seems too bad that any of the boys should feel so
unkindly toward Mr. Haley, after all he's done for them."

"They're a poor lot--fellers like Sim Howell. Hang around the tavern
hoss sheds all the time. Can't git 'em to come up to the Readin' Room
with the decent fellers," Marty said belligerently.

Marty had forgotten that--not so long before--he had been a frequenter
of the tavern "hoss sheds" himself. That was before Janice had started
the Public Library Association and the boys' club.

Janice did not see Nelson that evening, and she wondered what he was
doing with his idle time. So the following afternoon she came home by
the Lower Road, meaning to call on the schoolmaster. She stopped her
car before Hopewell Drugg's store and ran in there first.

'Rill was behind the counter; but from the back room the wail of the
violin announced Hopewell's presence. The lively tunes which the
storekeeper had played so much through the Winter just past--such as
"Jingle Bells" and "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party"--seemed now forgotten.
Nor was Hopewell in a sentimental mood and his old favorite, "Silver
Threads Among the Gold," could not express his feelings.

"Old Hundred" was the strain he played, and he drew it lingeringly out
of the strings until it fairly rasped the nerves. No son of Israel,
weeping against the wall in old Jerusalem, ever expressed sorrow more
deeply than did Hopewell's fiddle at the present juncture.

"Oh, dear, Janice! that's the way he is all day long," whispered the
bride, the tears sparkling in her eyes. "He says Lottie _must_ go to
Boston, and I guess he's right. The poor little thing doesn't see
anywhere near as good as she did."

"Oh, my dear!" cried Janice, under her breath. "I wish I could help
pay for her trip."

"No. You've done your part, Janice. You paid for the treatment
before----"

"I only helped," interrupted Janice.

"It was a great, big help. Hopewell can never repay you," said the
wife. "And he can accept no more from you, dear."

"But I haven't got it to offer!" almost wailed Janice. "Daddy's mine
is shut down again. I--I could almost wish to sell my car--only it was
a particular present from daddy----"

"No, indeed! There is going to be something else sold, I expect,"
'Rill said gravely. "Here! let us go back. I don't like even to see
this fellow come in here. Hopewell must wait on him."

Janice turned to see Joe Bodley, the fat, smirking bartender from