me of the kids is too
young.'

"'But ye must earn money, ye scut,' I says. 'Ye're fourteen and whin I
was that age I was me mother's support and joy. I made four shillin's a
wake mixin' plaster for a tile-layer.'

"'I work,' he responds dolefully. 'But it goes to me mother to put with
the savings in the bank against the time me father will be drowned, and
leave us without support, for ye must know that we life-savers get no
pensions.'

"'I niver hear-ed of a life-saver bein' drowned,' I remarks. 'But it may
be, for I see ye are of an exthra-ordinary family and anything may come
to such. How many are there of yez?'

"'There are six of us childher, all gur-rls but mesilf,' says he, with
rage in his voice. 'And Carson--he was No. 4--broke his hip in a wreck
last year and died of the bruise and left five, which the crew is
lookin' after. Young Carson is one of me gang and makes a dollar and
four bits a week deliverin' clams to the summer folks. Ye see he can't
save a dollar for the bank.' And we got up and discussed the matther
going down the hill toward the town. Before we parted Tad tould me where
he lived.

"'I'd call on yer father and mother,' says I, 'if I cud be sure they
would appreciate the honor. 'Tis a comedown for an officer in the
lighthouse establishmint to inter the door of a surfman.'

"'Me father has a kind heart and is good to the ould,' he answers me.
'We live beyond the station, on the bluff.'

"With that we went our ways and I ate an imminse meal in the hotel with
the dishes all spread out before me--and a pretty gur-rl behind me
shoulder to point out the best of thim. Thin I walked out and started
for the house of me bould Tad.

"I found thim all seated in the parlor excipt the missus, who was mixin'
bread in the kitchen. I introduced mesilf, and Sheldon, who had No. 1 on
his sleeve, offered me a pipe, which I took. I came down to business,
houldin' me cap full of checks and money on me lap. 'Yer bould bhoy
wants to be a scout and lacks a dollar,' I says. 'I like his looks,
though I discovered him in a hole under a tree. He won't take me money
and scorns me and the establishmint.'

"'He must earn it,' he answers, scowlin' over his pipe.

"'But I'll spind it,' I insists, peerin' at the bhoy out of the tail of
me eye. 'If yer town weren't dhry I'd have given it to the saloon man
for the good of the family he hasn't got. So why bilge at a single
dollar?'

"''Tis the scouts' law,' puts in me