ad asked about a thousand questions and
gone to bed eager to be out on the street again the next day. We knew
we couldn't keep him cooped up in the flat all the time and of course
both Ruth and I were going to be too busy to go out with him every
time he went. As for letting him run loose around these streets with
nothing to do, that would be sheer foolhardiness. It was too late in
the season to enroll him in the public schools and even that would
have left him idle during the long summer months.

We talked some at first of sending him off into the country to a farm.
There were two or three families back where Ruth had lived who might
be willing to take him for three or four dollars a week and we had
the money left over from the sale of our household goods to cover
that. But this would mean the sacrifice of our emergency fund which we
wished to preserve more for the boy's sake than our own and it would
mean leaving Ruth very much alone.

"I'll do it, Billy," she said bravely, "but can't we wait a day or two
before deciding? And I think I can _make_ time to get out with him.
I'll get up earlier in the morning and I'll leave my work at night
until after he's gone to bed."

So she would. She'd have worked all night to keep him at home and then
gone out with him all day if it had been possible. I saw it would be
dragging the heart out of her to send the boy away and made up my mind
right then and there that some other solution must be found for the
problem. Good Lord, after I'd led her down here the least I could do
was to let her keep the one. And to tell the truth I found my own
heart sink at the suggestion.

"What do the boys round here do in the summer?" she asked.

I didn't know and I made up my mind to find out. The next day I went
down to a settlement house which I remembered passing at some time or
other. I didn't know what it was but it sounded like some sort of
philanthropic enterprise for the neighborhood and if so they ought to
be able to answer my questions there. The outside of the building was
not particularly attractive but upon entering I was pleasantly
surprised at the air of cleanliness and comfort which prevailed. There
were a number of small boys around and in one room I saw them reading
and playing checkers. I sought out the secretary and found him a
pleasant young fellow though with something of the professional
pleasantness which men in this work seem to acquire. He smiled too
much and held my