repeated
a remark he had heard in the office:

"If a fellow goes to school all his life he misses the education of
business. That's how it is so many professional men fall down when it
comes to collecting accounts."

Frankie regarded him with a smile in which considerable admiration
shone. She was just a girl of seventeen.

"I suppose it must be nice to make your own living," she said, and,
after thinking a moment, "awfully nice!"

"You bet. I got tired of seeing Dad come home for meals all tuckered
out, to find me playing ball on the lawn or reading literature on the
verandah."

He cast his eyes toward Main Street. The village bell announced the
evening meal, and a familiar figure walked toward the home of George
Nelson, village merchant.

"There he comes, Frankie," said Evan, unconsciously sighing; "that step
will always remind me of summer evenings and studious noon hours."

The bankclerk felt a sudden desire to work hard and repay his father
for the consideration shown him at school. The village merchant would
have been willing to help his boy through any college in the country,
and the boy knew it. He felt proud of his start in business, of the
paltry two dollars in his pocket, as he watched his father approach.

Mr. Nelson waved his hat when he saw Evan on the verandah; and when he
came up,--

"Hey," he laughed, "it's a wonder you wouldn't call into a fellow's
store and say good-day."

Evan shook hands heartily, smiling into the blue eyes that had more
than once cowed him with a glance, when he was performing some
ridiculous feat of boyhood.

"I understand," said the father, before Evan could make an excuse;
"it's up to Ma. I'm surprised she leaves you alone out here with a
young lady."

Perceiving the effect of his remark on Frankie, George Nelson laughed
merrily and pinched the girl's cheek.

Soon the glad family was seated at a supper table, Mrs. Nelson's
table--that is description enough. Frankie knew she was not an
intruder. She was there as Lou's companion, not as Evan's sweetheart.
She knew Evan wanted her to be there, her mother knew it, his mother
knew it, everybody knew it. The whole town knew it. Things might as
well be done in the open, in Hometon, for they would out anyway.

"How's business, Dad?" asked Evan, in quite a business tone.

"Oh, just the same. We continue to buy butter for twenty-five cents
and sell it retail at twenty-three cents. Joe breaks about the same