re she hears of it through somebody else. Tell her there is
no cause for alarm. The boy will have the best of care at the hospital,
and she can go there and see him every day during visiting hours."

"And you think it will be a month before he will be about again, Mr.
Bryant?" questioned Peter, anxiously.

"Oh, I'm no doctor. How can I tell?" was Bryant's somewhat testy answer.
"One thing is certain, however; he won't be here again this week.
Sprint along."

And so it was Peter Strong who bore the sorry tidings to Nat's mother,
and who cheered and encouraged her as affectionately as if he had been
her own son; it was also Peter who, during the weeks that followed, paid
the Jacksons' rent and provided sufficient funds for living expenses.
How he blessed his motorcycle savings! Without them he never could have
helped Nat at this time when help was so sorely needed. Far from
begrudging the money Peter exulted in spending it. A motorcycle seemed
singularly unimportant when contrasted with a crisis like this. Yet
magnificent as his little fortune had seemed it dwindled rapidly. How
much everything cost! How had Nat ever managed to keep soul and body
together on what he earned? Peter's savings melted like the snows before
the warm spring sunshine, and one day the lad awoke to the fact that
there was no more money in the bank and that Nat's mother was absolutely
dependent for food upon his daily earnings. It was a new sensation and
a startling one--to know that you must work--that if you stopped some
one dear to you would go hungry.

Poor Peter!

He now had a spur indeed--an incentive to toil as he never had toiled
before!

Stuart was delighted with his recently acquired pupil.

"He is as steady a little chap as you would care to see," he told Bryant
when they met in the yard one day. "And he is bright as a button, too.
Already he has caught on to the various finishing processes and is as
handy as any of the men in the department. And then he is such a well
spoken lad; not like many of the boys who come into the tannery. He must
have come of good family. Do you know anything about his people?"

"Not a thing. I've heard that Mr. Coddington got him his job in the
first place, but that may not be true; I think, though, it is more than
likely, because they have pushed him ahead faster than is customary. But
at any rate the boy has made good, no matter who started him. He will
be at the top of the ladder yet."

Peter Str