an effort. He had
taken on an extra job evenings, that of delivery boy for the local
grocer. It did not bring in much, to be sure, and it kept him on his
feet at the end of the day when often he was too tired to stand.
However, all these disadvantages were lost sight of in the few
additional dollars derived from the makeshift.

"Mother says you can't keep this up, old chap," remarked Carl dismally.
"She says you will be getting tired out and sick and then where will
you be?"

"But we've got to have the cash, kid! _Got to have it_, don't you see?
It was I who landed us in this plight and I'm the one to get us out.
It's nobody's fault but mine."

Carl sighed.

"I suppose Corcoran wouldn't----"

"Take Louise back if I were to humble myself," flared Hal. "Do you
think for a moment I'd ask him? Do you imagine I'd gratify him by
letting him know how hard he'd hit us? Not on your life! For all he
knows the Harlings are rich as mud and don't care a hurrah for his old
job. I want him to think that too. If he pictures me eating out of his
hand he's mistaken."

Carl looked grave.

"It is all very well to be proud," affirmed he, smiling at his friend's
characteristic attitude of mind. "But sometimes you can't afford to be
too cocky. If, as you say, you pitched into Corcoran and were wrong----"

"But I wasn't wrong," broke in Hal. "I meant every word I said; it was
the truth and I'd say it again if I got the chance. You'd have said the
same yourself if you'd been there. The thing that got his goat was that
it was true."

"But you can't go round telling people the truth about themselves, old
man," observed Carl with a wisdom far beyond his years. "They won't
stand for it."

"I'll bet I would. I'd a darn sight rather a person told me straight to
my face what he thought of me than whispered it behind my back."

"That's what I'm trying to do now," grinned Carl.

Young Harling's lips curved into a smile.

"Why, so you are, kid," returned he. "I didn't recognize the stunt at
first. You're a mighty white little chap, Carl. Maybe I was wrong to
light into Corcoran as I did. Of course he is my superior and I really
had no business to sarse him, even if he was wrong. But he is such a
cad! It made my blood boil to hear him berate that poor little Mayo
girl--and for something she did not do, too."

"I know."

"Well, if you were in this mess what would you do? Come now. Give me
some of your sage advice."

"You don't suppos