replied simply.

"It's a nice place to live," continued Carl, glowing with local pride.
"Of course it isn't like this. We've no trees. But in winter trees
aren't much good anyway; and in summer we can go to the parks."

To this philosophic observation his companion agreed with a nod and
they sped on in silence.

The vast stretches of snow, so unsightly in the city's narrow
thoroughfares, were on every hand white and sparkling, and each little
shrub rearing its head out of the spangled fields was laden with
ermine.

The boy drew a long breath, drinking in the crystal air.

"Gee!" he burst out impulsively. "This is great. I feel cheered up
already."

The man driving the car shot him a quiet smile.

"I'm glad to hear that," said he. "So you were out of spirits, were
you?"

"I was fussed within an inch of my life," owned Carl with engaging
candor.

"In wrong somewhere?"

"Oh, I'm not; but my chum is."

"What's the matter?"

"Why, you see his sister has just been fired from Davis and Coulter's
mills. It wasn't her fault at all, either. Her brother gave the
foreman, Corcoran, a jawing because he got too fresh with one of the
girls. Corcoran didn't say a word at the time but a couple of weeks
later he took out his spite on Hal Harling's sister, Louise. I suppose
he was mad and decided on this way to get even."

"Humph!"

"Maybe he thought he'd take Hal's pride down and make him come crawling
to him on his knees to get Louise back into the mills. It is a rotten
time to be out of work. Louise has tried and tried to get another job
and can't land a thing. But whether she does or not, her brother isn't
going crawling to Corcoran. He's not afraid of the old tyrant. Hal
Harling isn't afraid of anything. Why, only the other day he tore into
the street and saved a little runaway chap from being mashed to jelly
under a lot of automobiles. The baby was chasing a dog and got into the
middle of High Street before he realized it. He would certainly have
been killed had it not been for Hal."

"Whose baby was it?" questioned the man beside him in an odd voice.

"Oh, I don't know. We didn't wait to see. Hal was anxious to get out of
the crowd and we were late home anyway. So Harling gave the kid to the
nursemaid and lit out."

There was a muffled: "I see!" from his listener.

"And where do you come in in all this tangle?" queried the stranger
presently.

"I? Why, you see Hal Harling is my----" a sudden reserve fell