tained from putting on his
coat. At that moment, too, Dick Lee came tiptoeing in from his cheerless
garret, and looking astonishingly spruce. The "shine" on his shoes was a
brilliancy to be remembered; and so was the shine on his face, and the
sunset glow of his necktie.

"Sh! Dick," said Dab. "Hold still a minute. The bell's beginning to
toll."

"I fear Almira and I will be compelled to start," said Mrs. Myers
regretfully. "Perhaps you can overtake us if you hurry."

"Perhaps we could," replied Ford, "but I beg you will not let yourself
be late on our account. We're coming."

He began to put his coat on as she and Almira went through the gate. In
such a village as that, no one was afraid to leave a house alone for an
hour or two. Not only was the door-lock "on the latch" as usual, but
Dick Lee had been vaguely expected to stay at home. There, again, Mrs.
Myers had taken too much for granted; and she had not said a word to him
about it.

Just as she heard the bell give its last few rapid and warning strokes,
and disappeared through the church-door, she might have seen, had she
turned back and looked once more towards her own front gate, four
well-dressed youngsters hurrying from it across the street as if a great
deal depended on their reaching church before service could begin.

"It's very kind of Mrs. Myers to invite us," remarked Ford, "but she
never thought how bashful we'd be about it."

They were quickly within the ample porch of the roomy and not at all
overcrowded edifice, and were greeted by two or three benevolent-looking
elderly gentlemen, with a degree of prompt cordiality which left little
to be asked for.

The deacons were awake to their duty relating to new
scholars,--"students" they called them; and every attention was paid
these four who had begun so well their first Sunday.

So it would be at every church on that green; and it would really be
about the middle of the term before stray "academy boys" would be left
to find their own way to well-whittled benches in the galleries.

One of the best pews in the house, well forward in the middle aisle, and
they had it all to themselves. There was not another pew in church that
morning which seemed to attract so large a share of the attention of the
congregation. Mrs. Myers and Almira were several pews behind, and on the
other side of the house; and there had been no opportunity to capture
her four boarders, or any of them, while they were marching