she had assured him that she meant to read
"Robinson Crusoe" within the next fortnight.

Then a lad apparently of about her own age, a high-school boy, shy, but
with very gentle manners, who started as if to retreat as he saw her,
gathered his courage, returned his book, and stood there undecided.

"Do you want another book?" Elsie asked.

"Have you got anything about Edison?" he asked. "I've got to write a
composition about electricity, and I thought I might start with him."

Elsie consulted the catalogue, but greatly to her disappointment was
unable to find anything. The boy had such nice manners and such
honest, deep-set eyes that she wanted to help him.

"You might start with Benjamin Franklin," she suggested, not very
confidently.

"Sure!" he returned, smiling frankly. She got him a biography of
Franklin, and he sat down at one of the tables with note-book and
pencil and was soon deep in it.

There were a number of references to Franklin in the catalogue, and as
Elsie went back to it to see if she might have made a better choice,
she saw that one referred to the proper volume of a "Dictionary of
American Scientists." It came to her that she might discover Edison in
the same place. She was pleased to find several pages of a recent
volume of the work devoted to that inventor. She carried it to the boy
and pointed out the pages with a feeling of satisfaction almost like
triumph.

The afternoon flew. She closed the library regretfully, for she never
expected to enter it again. For to-morrow was Saturday, and if she
should stay beyond the afternoon, it would mean she could not get away
until Monday. And that she could never stand. For she had gathered
somehow that Mrs. Middleton made a special effort to sit up all Sunday
except during the time her husband was at church. If it was mostly a
case of nerves, Miss Stewart might as well come back one day as another.

But again at dinner Mrs. Middleton was absent from her place. She sent
a special request to Elsie to occupy it, and Elsie spent a very happy
half-hour telling Mr. Middleton about the happenings of the afternoon,
hearing his explanatory comment on persons and things, and serving the
pudding. And when he told her he had seen Miss Stewart, who thought
she would hardly feel like coming back until Monday, and had assured
her that his niece would be glad to take her place another day, Elsie
was quite undisturbed.

CHAPTER XII

Elsie Ma