ormer occasion,
began to wonder if there was nothing the boys could do while the reading
was going on.

Nobody could suggest anything at first, but at length one boy
volunteered the information that he could knit; other two professed the
same accomplishment, and, encouraged by this example, several voices
expressed their willingness to learn.

"The very thing!" exclaimed Mabel, "we might have thought of that
sooner."

"O, but," objected Minnie, "wouldn't it be too ridiculous to see boys
sitting knitting."

"Not at all," asserted Mabel. "I once knew a family of Germans, rich
people too, who had all their knitting done by the young men, and anyhow
it won't matter if it is ridiculous, it's useful, and nobody will laugh
when they remember that. I thought at first it would have been rather
ridiculous to see the girls painting the gates and palings, but it
turned out quite the opposite. It is wonderful how earnestness
beautifies the most commonplace things, and reconciles us to the most
incongruous."

"Well, I see you are right, and I suppose I must give in," answered
Minnie, "We can give it a trial at any rate, though it will justify its
existence, in my eyes, I am afraid, only by its success, as papa said
our undertaking had in his,--oh, that's a dreadfully narrow way to look
at it, no, I'll give the plan my unqualified support."

"That's more like you," said Mabel, smiling at her impulsive
afterthought, "it isn't your way to be half-hearted in anything. Now,
I'll tell you what I propose should be done about this. We must supply
ourselves with a quantity of worsted, and a sufficient number of
knitting-needles, and set all the boys at once to knit stockings and
socks for their own winter wear. I propose that they shall, every pair
as it is finished, be put into a box with the maker's name attached to
it, and be kept there for distribution in the cold weather."

This motion meeting with general approval, was forthwith adopted, and
the conversation for that evening ended. The boys, as a rule, were
greatly delighted with the proposed change, for they did not find it by
any means an easy matter to sit quite still, doing nothing, even while
listening to the most interesting story, and thus it promised to be a
comfortable, as well as a useful arrangement all round.

That night as Mabel was locking the door preparatory to going home, she
noticed a little boy who usually attended the Saturday evening meeting,
but who had