the Den.

Aaron said little, but he was drawn to the girl, who had not the
self-consciousness of Tommy and Elspeth in his presence, and sometimes
he slipped a penny into her hand. The pennies were not spent, they were
hoarded for the fair, or Muckle Friday, or Muckley, great day of the
year in Thrums. If you would know how Tommy was making ready for this
mighty festival, listen.

One of his sources of income was the _Mentor_, a famous London weekly
paper, which seemed to visitors to be taken in by every person of
position in Thrums. It was to be seen not only in parlors, but on the
armchair at the Jute Bank, in the gauger's gig, in the Spittal factor's
dog-cart, on a shoemaker's form, protruding from Dr. McQueen's tail
pocket and from Mr. Duthie's oxter pocket, on Cathro's school-desk, in
the Rev. Mr. Dishart's study, in half a dozen farms. Miss Ailie
compelled her little servant, Gavinia, to read the _Mentor_, and stood
over her while she did it; the phrase, "this week's," meant this week's
_Mentor_. Yet the secret must be told: only one copy of the paper came
to Thrums weekly; it was subscribed for by the whole reading public
between them, and by Miss Ailie's influence Tommy had become the boy who
carried it from house to house.

This brought him a penny a week, but so heavy were his incidental
expenses that he could have saved little for the Muckley had not another
organization given him a better chance. It was a society, newly started,
for helping the deserving poor; they had to subscribe not less than a
penny weekly to it, and at the end of the year each subscriber was to be
given fuel, etc., to the value of double what he or she had put in. "The
three Ps" was a nickname given to the society by Dr. McQueen, because it
claimed to distribute "Peats and Potatoes with Propriety," but he was
one of its heartiest supporters nevertheless. The history of this
society in the first months of its existence not only shows how Tommy
became a moneyed man, but gives a glimpse into the character of those it
benefited.

Miss Ailie was treasurer, and the pennies were to be brought to her on
Monday evenings between the hours of seven and eight. The first Monday
evening found her ready in the school-room, in her hand the famous
pencil that wrote red with the one end and blue with the other; by her
side her assistant, Mr. T. Sandys, a pen balanced on his ear. For a
whole hour did they wait, but though many of the worthiest poor had