want it."

"Oh, it's too good to be true!" cried Todd, giving his mother a hug of
frantic joy before he rushed off to the stable. There she found him a
little later with his arms around the pony's neck, saying over and
over: "Oh, you dear, beautiful old thing! You're better than a
thousand wheels!"

"It's all because of your living up to your motto, sonny boy," she
said, as she held out a lump of sugar for the pretty creature to
nibble. "It was your 'good name' that brought you into Mrs. Parker's
'loving favour.'"

Abbot Morgan's disappointment was not tempered by any such great
happiness as came to little Todd, but it was a proud moment when he
showed his uncle his bank-book, and heard his hearty praise. Judge
Parker and the grocer were there also at the time.

"I came to tell you," said the grocer, "that there is a man in my
store who has a first-class wheel that he wants to sell cheap. You
have earned more than enough to pay the price he asks for it, so you
see your summer's work has not been in vain. And I want to say that
any time you want to put that 'hand of the diligent' into my business.
I'll make a place for you."

There was a gratified smile on Ab's face as he thanked him. "I'll go
right down now and buy that wheel," he exclaimed.

"Well," said the judge, as he took his departure, "every one of those
texts worked out just as true as preaching, and brought its own
reward, but I rather think Luke's is the best one to tie to."

As he turned the corner, he met Chicky himself, who was coming to find
him on the new bicycle that had just been sent to him.

"Oh, Judge Parker!" he cried, jumping off the wheel, cap in hand. "I
was just coming to thank you, but," he stammered, "I--I--don't know
where to begin. I'm tickled nearly to death. It's a beauty, sure!"

He looked down, growing red in the face, as he dug his toe in the
gravel. Then he said, bashfully: "You've more than put me on a wheel,
Judge Parker. I can't help feeling that you've started me on the right
track for life, too. I'm glad you had that put on it."

His stubby fingers rested caressingly on the little silver plate
between the handle-bars, on which was engraved the motto that had come
to mean so much: "_He that is faithful in that which is least is
faithful also in much._"

THE END.

* * * * *

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quilt that Jack Built; How He Won
the Bicycle, by Annie Fe