declared the youth at last.
"Now providing you will be as frank, and do the honors as well, I'll
introduce myself as Nelson Haley. I hail from Springfield. I have spent
four years in the scholastic halls of Williamstown. I hope to go to law
school, but meanwhile must earn a part of the where-with-all. Therefore,
I am attacking the citadel of the Poketown School."

"Oh! That's the why-for of it, eh?" crowed Walky. "Much obleeged. I'll
know what to say now when anybody asks me."

"I hope so," returned Nelson Haley, with some sarcasm. "But fair
exchange, Mister. You might tell me who I have the honor of speaking
to--and, especially, you might introduce me to the lady?"

"Oh! Eh?" and Walky looked at the blushing Janice, questioningly. The
girl smiled, however, and the driver cleared his throat and gravely made
the introduction. "And I'm Walky Dexter," he concluded. "If you git the
Poketown school you'll come ter know me quite well, I shouldn't wonder."

"That is something to look forward to, I am sure," declared Nelson
Haley, drily. Then he turned to Janice, and asked:

"Will you be one of my pupils, if I have the good fortune to get the
school, Miss Day?"

"I--I am afraid not. I do not really belong in Poketown," Janice
explained. "And the ungraded school could not aid me much."

"No, I suppose not," returned the young man. "Well! I hope I see you
again, Miss Day."

Walky clucked to the horses and they jogged on, leaving Nelson Haley to
finish his repairs. Walky chuckled, and said to Janice:

"He's quite a flip young feller. He is young to tackle the Poketown
school. An' 'twill be an objection, I shouldn't wonder. Ye see, they
couldn't find that fault with 'Rill Scattergood."

"But I venture to say that they did when she first came to Poketown to
teach," cried Janice.

"Oh, say! I sh'd say they did," agreed Walky, with a retrospective
rolling of his head. "An' she was a purty young gal, then, too. There
was more on us than Hopewell Drugg arter 'Rill in them days--yes,
sir-ree!"

Janice was curious, and she yielded to the temptation of asking the town
gossip a question:

"Why--why didn't Miss 'Rill marry Hopewell, then?"

"The goodness only knows why they fell out, Miss Janice," declared
Walky. "We none of us ever made out. I 'spect it was the old woman done
it--ol' Miz' Scattergood. She didn't take kindly to Hopewell. And
then--Well, 'Cinda Stone was lef' all alone, an' she lived right back o'
Drugg's st