enough to make him so. I wonder if any one of
us would be very amiable if she were poverty-stricken, half sick all the
time, had lost all her friends and had been cheated out of the little
which would make old age comfortable? It is very easy to be smiling and
agreeable when everything goes right, but when things go wrong, it isn't
half so easy, especially when one hasn't a good disposition to begin
with."

"But what in the world could we do for him?" asked Reliance. "If we
stopped to speak to him, very likely he would get after us with a
stick."

"Did any of the boys and girls ever try the experiment of speaking to
him pleasantly? I am quite sure the boys do their best to annoy him in
any way they can contrive, and even some of the girls tease him slyly
and call him names, I am told."

"Yes, they do," replied Reliance, doubtfully, who herself was not
entirely innocent in this regard.

"Suppose you were to try the experiment of beginning by smiling when you
go by and saying, pleasantly, 'Good-morning, Mr. Keener?' Then next day,
even if he chased you away the first time, you might say, 'Isn't this a
lovely morning, Mr. Keener?' and you could always make a point of saying
something pleasant to him when you go by. Then some day when it is
raining or too cold for him to sit in his doorway----"

"Like a great big, ugly spider," remarked Letty.

Mrs. Conway paid no heed to the comment, "you could leave a big apple on
the doorsill for him, and so on, till in time I will venture to say he
will learn that you wish him well and are trying to be friends. You must
keep in your mind all the time that he is a poor, neglected, friendless,
unhappy old man and that if you can succeed in bringing even a little
sunshine into his life, you will be doing a great deal."

The girls were very sober for a few minutes, then Reliance said
thoughtfully, "I believe I should like to try it anyway."

"Of course," Mrs. Conway went on, "the girls may have found other and
better ideas for a club, and a better name than I can suggest, but it
seemed to me that this might be made something like the G. R., yet would
not be exactly the same, and it could have quite a different name."

"Oh, mother," exclaimed Edna, "do tell the name you thought of, I think
it is so lovely."

"I thought you might call yourselves 'The Elderflowers,' because your
good deeds would be directed toward your elders, and you would be
cheerful, little flowers to bring swe