sure, and at least I can try."

She did try. Without troubling her mother with her plans,--for she
knew she would be worried and think of a dozen objections to it,--in
her delicate state of health,--Alice hurried through with her work,
put on her things, and went to call first on Mr. Smith, a grocer. She
happened to know that at the back of Mr. Smith's store was a room
opening on a side street, which he had formerly rented for a cobbler's
shop, but which was now empty.

Alice's heart fluttered wildly a moment, when she stood before the
grocer in his private office, where she was sent when she asked of the
clerk an interview with Mr. Smith.

"You are Rawson's daughter, I believe," was Mr. Smith's greeting.

"Yes," said Alice, "I am Alice Rawson, and you'll think I am crazy,
I'm afraid, when I tell you my errand," she went on, trembling. "But
oh, Mr. Smith! if you remember my father before--before"--

"I do, child," said the grocer kindly, supposing she had come to ask
for help.

"Then you'll not wonder," she went on bravely, "that I am going to try
every way to save my brother."

"Is your brother in danger?" asked Mr. Smith. "And what can I do?"

"He is in danger," said Alice earnestly, "of doing just as father did,
and so are lots of other boys, and what you can do is to let me have
Johnson's old shop, free of rent for a little while, to make an
experiment--if I can get help," she added warmly.

"But what will you do? I don't understand," said Mr. Smith.

"What will I do? Oh, I'll try to make a place as pleasant as Mason's
saloon, that shan't cost anything, and I'll try to get every boy and
young man to go there, and not to Mason's. If they could have a nice,
warm place of their own, Mr. Smith, don't you think they would go
there?" she asked anxiously.

"I don't know but they would," said the grocer; "but it's an
experiment. I don't see where you'll get things to put in, or your
fire, or anything to make it rival Mason's. However, I'm busy now and
can't talk more, and as you're in earnest and the cause is good, I'll
let you have the room to try the plan."

"Oh, thank you!" cried Alice.

"Here's the key," taking that article down from a nail. "Say no more,
child, I couldn't rent it this winter anyway," as she tried to speak.

Alice walked out with her precious key, feeling as if the whole thing
was done. But it was far from that.

Her next visit--she had carefully planned them all out--was to a man
wh