ere was silence. In Mr. Jack's eyes there was an odd
look as they rested on David's face. Then, abruptly, he spoke.

"David, I wish I had money. I'd put you then where you belonged," he
sighed.

"Do you mean--where I'd find my work to do?" asked the boy softly.

"Well--yes; you might say it that way," smiled the man, after a
moment's hesitation--not yet was Mr. Jack quite used to this boy who
was at times so very un-boylike.

"Father told me 't was waiting for me--somewhere."

Mr. Jack frowned thoughtfully.

"And he was right, David. The only trouble is, we like to pick it out
for ourselves, pretty well,--too well, as we find out sometimes, when
we're called off--for another job."

"I know, Mr. Jack, I know," breathed David. And the man, looking into
the glowing dark eyes, wondered at what he found there. It was almost
as if the boy really understood about his own life's
disappointment--and cared; though that, of course, could not be!

"And it's all the harder to keep ourselves in tune then, too, is n't
it?" went on David, a little wistfully.

"In tune?"

"With the rest of the Orchestra."

"Oh!" And Mr. Jack, who had already heard about the "Orchestra of
Life," smiled a bit sadly. "That's just it, my boy. And if we're handed
another instrument to play on than the one we WANT to play on, we're
apt to--to let fly a discord. Anyhow, I am. But"--he went on more
lightly--"now, in your case, David, little as I know about the violin,
I know enough to understand that you ought to be where you can take up
your study of it again; where you can hear good music, and where you
can be among those who know enough to appreciate what you do."

David's eyes sparkled.

"And where there wouldn't be any pulling weeds or hoeing dirt?"

"Well, I hadn't thought of including either of those pastimes."

"My, but I would like that, Mr. Jack!--but THAT wouldn't be WORK, so
that couldn't be what father meant." David's face fell.

"Hm-m; well, I wouldn't worry about the 'work' part," laughed Mr. Jack,
"particularly as you aren't going to do it just now. There's the money,
you know,--and we haven't got that."

"And it takes money?"

"Well--yes. You can't get those things here in Hinsdale, you know; and
it takes money, to get away, and to live away after you get there."

A sudden light transfigured David's face.

"Mr. Jack, would gold do it?--lots of little round gold-pieces?"

"I think it would, David, if there were enough