number of eggs a day, and John is still good opposition. Well--how do
you like the bank?"

"Fine," said Evan immediately; "the manager says he is going to push me
along."

"Isn't that just splendid," exclaimed the mother, joyously.

"That depends," said Mr. Nelson, mischievously, "what is meant by being
pushed along. If it means a move some hundreds of miles away----"

Mrs. Nelson sighed after vainly trying to smile. She was singularly
quiet for a while. Her husband was enjoying himself immensely. He was
an optimist, his wife inclined to pessimism. George Nelson believed in
making the best of things that had already happened and making nothing
of things to come until they came. Caroline, his wife, lived a great
many of her troubles in advance. At the same time, the father was as
"sentimental" as the mother in the teeth of happenings. He could
suffer as much beneath a smile as she could behind tears. Encouraging
the boy, however, was making the best of matters, and Mr. Nelson was
going to do his part.

"Perhaps it's just as well you did quit school, Evan," he said
cheerfully; "they say the new principal isn't up to much."

After that the conversation alternated between school and the bank, and
Evan was enabled to gather valuable material for the institution of
comparisons. He launched out in the direction of a bank and kicked
back-water schoolward. He managed so well no one had the heart to duck
him; his friends had compassion on him in his young enthusiasm. But in
spite of the consent silence is supposed to lend, Evan felt that he was
scarcely convincing. An atmosphere of good old days was thrown about
him; Frankie seemed to be dropping suggestions continually that took
him back to the classroom, where Literature and History charmed, or
upon the ball field, where Mike Malone swung his long leg and his
barnyard boot. A little opposition would have given the bankclerk a
keener interest in the conversation; the reiteration of "yes" seemed to
make him doubt his own arguments.

But Evan was not to be disheartened by imaginings. He used more of his
technical talk on the "Dad," though with less effect than he had
observed on the women, and, as a sort of clincher, divulged a little of
the bank's business. The father took an interest there.

"Do you mean to say they've got deposits amounting to that?" he said,
postponing a bite.

Mrs. Nelson lighted up. Evan was coming out.

"Isn't it grand," she