tress' house, wherever a spot could be
found for them to sit. But, if you please, Mr. Graham kept that
tell-tale pad of his right handy, and between whiles how he would
write! For he meant that a thoroughly interesting and inspiring
account of the day should be in that very night's paper.

"So that others may go and do likewise!" he thought, and for once
without the least concern how much "space" he could occupy and be paid
for.

At last it was all over. Everybody had eaten as much as he desired,
and the big sleighs came round to convey the lads back to Newspaper
Square, to the old lives of labor and, alas! poverty; but which were
to be far brighter, for a long time to come, because of that one day's
hilarious enjoyment.

In the cheery back parlor, that evening, Miss Lucy assembled a little
group of people. There were father Johns, and Doctor Frank, and Mr.
Graham; besides Molly and Towsley--I mean Lionel--sitting cosily
together on one of the very same satin sofas of which, such a little
while before, they had both been afraid.

With a slight hesitation, Miss Lucy began:

"I believe that this has been the happiest day of my life. I hope it
is a happiness which will continue, because it is the beginning of a
life for others. But I wish to make that life as wise as possible. I
am afraid of mistakes. I want your advice; the advice of every one
here present. I mean to adopt this boy, Towsley--the new Lionel
Armacost. Tell me, friends, how best can I rear him to be a blessing
to his race?"

For a moment nobody answered; then said father Johns, in his wise,
cheery way:

"Since our boy here is to be the beneficiary, let us hear his idea of
what _he_ would think best."

"Right, right!" said the reporter, who had faith in all his craft.

"Well, am I to tell?" asked the once shy newsboy eagerly.

"Yes, indeed. Tell freely, exactly; without a particle of hesitation."

"Yes, my dear, what would you like your future to be?"

"Well, then, Miss Lucy, I would like first of all to live right here
with you and to make you as happy, to take as good care of you, as I
can. But I wouldn't like to do it all alone! I'd like to have some
other fellows here, too. As many as you could afford to take. I'd like
each one to learn just what he likes. There's the Bugler. He's just
chock full of tunes. If he had a chance he might make beautiful music
some day, like them big duffers what wrote the operas, you know. I'd
give him music le