arry, I wouldn't say nothing about your mother," replied Mop
earnestly. "I think your mother's a bully good woman. She was awfully
good to my mother last winter, I know."

The spring went out of Larry's body. He backed away from Mop and the
boys.

"Who said your mother was a coward?" inquired Mop indignantly. "If
anybody says so, you bring him to me, and I'll punch his head good, I
will."

Larry looked foolishly at Ben, who looked foolishly back at him.

"Say, Mop," said Larry, a smile like a warm light passing over his face,
"come on up and see my new rabbits."

CHAPTER IV

SALVAGE

Another and greater enterprise was diverting Mr. Gwynne's attention from
the delinquencies of his debtors, namely: the entrance of the National
Machine Company into the remote and placid life of Mapleton and its
district. The manager of this company, having spent an afternoon with
Mr. Gwynne in his store and having been impressed by his charm and power
of persuasive talk, made him a proposition that he should act as agent
of the National Machine Company. The arrangement suggested was one that
appealed to Mr. Gwynne's highly optimistic temperament. He was not
to work for a mere salary, but was to purchase outright the various
productions of the National Machine Company and receive a commission
upon all his sales. The figures placed before Mr. Gwynne by the manager
of the company were sufficiently impressive, indeed so impressive that
Mr. Gwynne at once accepted the proposition, and the Mapleton branch of
the National Machine Company became an established fact.

There was no longer any question as to the education of his family. In
another year when his boy had passed his entrance examinations he would
be able to send him to the high school in the neighbouring town of
Easton, properly equipped and relieved of those handicaps with which
poverty can so easily wash all the colour out of young life. A brilliant
picture the father drew before the eyes of his wife of the educational
career of their boy, who had already given promise of exceptional
ability. But while she listened, charmed, delighted and filled with
proud anticipation, the mother with none the less painful care saved her
garden and poultry money, cut to bare necessity her household expenses,
skimped herself and her children in the matter of dress, and by every
device which she had learned in the bitter school of experience during
the ten years of her Canadian life, ma