e a decision. To begin
with, nobody in the cheap lodging-house that was his only home had a
Bible, and he was ashamed to ask for one from the other boys. Still
the daily sight of that wheel in Stark Brothers window finally nerved
him to borrow a little old dog-eared Testament from the Swede who
swept out the office. The young Swede had gotten it at a mission
school he faithfully attended. There was no back on it, and several of
the leaves were missing, but some reverent hand had heavily
underscored some of the verses, and these were the ones that Chicky
spelled out when no one was looking.

"Here's one in Luke that somebody has marked," he said to himself.
"That ought to bring good luck, 'cause Luke is my real name, and it
was daddy's, too. Everybody that knew daddy says that he was a good
man. I believe I'll take this just because it is in Luke, and somebody
seemed to think it was an extra good one, or he wouldn't have put
three lines under it. The other verses that are marked have only one.
_'He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in
much.'_ I reckon that that's about as good a motto for the district
messenger business as any. I'll take this and sign myself Luke. Folks
have called me Chicky so long they must have forgotten I have any
other name."

[Illustration]

The Monday after school was out found Abbot in a pair of old overalls,
hoeing away in his garden as if his life depended on getting rid of
the last weed. Several of the boys stopped at the back fence to beg
him to go fishing with them, but he gave them a laughing refusal.

"I'm after bigger fish than your little brook trout," he said, in a
mysterious way. "I've got my line set for a whaling big fish that will
make you all green with envy. You just wait and see what I get on the
end of _my_ line."

He chuckled as he spoke. The line he meant was in a sealed envelope on
Judge Parker's desk, and he was sure that it would draw the prize
which would be envied by every boy in the neighbourhood.

"I'll bet it's tied to a bean-pole," was the mocking answer. "Come
along, boys, no use wasting time on an old dig like Ab."

He stood leaning on his hoe-handle a moment, watching the boys file
down the alley with their fishing-poles over their shoulders, and
thought of the shady creek bank where they would soon be sitting. How
much pleasanter to be where the willows dipped down into the clear,
still pools than here in the rough furrows of the ga