miled, and disclaimed any intention of apprenticeship.

"Captain Eri," she said, "I want to have a talk with you, a business
talk."

The Captain looked at her keenly. All he said, however, was, "You don't
tell me!"

"Yes, I want to talk with you about getting me a position."

"A position?"

"Yes, I've been thinking a great deal lately, and, now that grandfather
seems to be a little better, and I'm not needed to help take care of
him, I want to do something to earn my living."

"Earn your livin'? Why, child alive, you don't need to do that. You
ain't a mite of trouble at the house; fact is, I don't know how we'd get
along without you, and, as for money, why I cal'late your grandpa ain't
so poor but what, if I let you have a little change once in a while,
he'd be able to pay me back, when he got better."

"But I don't want to use your money or his either. Captain Eri, you
don't know what he has done for me ever since I was a little girl. He
has clothed me and given me an education, and been so kind and good
that, now that he is ill and helpless, I simply can't go on using his
money. I can't, and I won't."

The tears stood in the girl's eyes, as she spoke, and the Captain,
noticing her emotion, thought it better to treat the matter seriously,
for the present at any rate.

"All right," he said. "'Independence shows a proper sperit and saves
grocery bills,' as old man Scudder said when his wife run off with the
tin-peddler. What kind of a place was you thinkin' of takin'?"

"I want to get the appointment to teach in the grammar school here. Miss
Nixon is going to be married, and when she leaves I want her place--and
I want you to help me get it."

Captain Eri whistled. "I want to know!" he exclaimed. Then he said,
"Look here, Elsie, I don't want you to think I'm tryin' to be cur'ous
'bout your affairs, or anything like that, but are you sure there ain't
some reason more 'n you've told me of for your wantin' this place? I
ain't no real relation of yours, you understand, but I would like to
have you feel that you could come to me with your troubles jest the
same as you would to your grandpa. Now, honest and true, ain't there
somethin' back of this?"

It was only for a moment that Elsie hesitated, but that moment's
hesitation and the manner in which she answered went far toward
confirming the Captain's suspicions.

"No, Captain Eri," she said. "It is just as I've told you. I don't want
to be dependent on grandf