and they
had taken. Referring to Tim's desire for fellowship in his new effort, of
which Mr. Walton had heard, he added, "There is another who will stand by
you, the Great Brother who came as a babe at Bethlehem, and Christmas will
soon remind us of it. Feeling for us and loving us, he at last died for
us. Ask him to stand with you. He came to help just such poor weak fellows
as we all are."

That touched the "firm," and the next Sunday they both sat in a back seat
near the stove by the church-door. As Tim Tyler sat there in old St.
John's and heard the dreary wind roaring without, he thought of the
fishing-boats that scud before such winds anxious to make port and reach
home.

"That's me, I hope, trying to get home," he thought, "and find harbor in
God's Church, will hold us all."

CHAPTER XVIII.

A NEW DEPARTURE.

Again the club was only a memory. It was like a walking-stick that, when
the mountain-tramp is over, the vacationist puts on the wall as a memento.

"How is your club getting along, Charlie?" asked Miss Bertha Barry, one
day, when she was calling at Aunt Stanshy's.

"We--we--don't meet," said Charlie, mournfully. Juggie was there, also,
calling on a once brother knight, and he, too, looked sad.

"Now I have an idea," said the teacher. "You know I like a good time as
well as any body, but I think if we have clubs, it is a good idea to make
them as useful as possible. If you meet again, remember, your name is
'Up-the-Ladder Club,' always to be climbing up, always to be advancing.
Now you can advance in this way; you can combine the literary element."

"Come-and-bine what?" asked Juggie.

"The literary element."

"De literal element?"

"Recitations and so on, I mean."

"We did have an entertainment," said Charlie, who was not disposed to
forget or disparage the glory of "departed days."

"But this is something different, and let me explain. Let us suppose that
we take the subject, 'Days of our Forefathers,' the times before or at the
Revolutionary War. One of you could be dressed as a farmer in those days,
and tell what farmers did; another as printer could tell what printers
did, and so on. That would give you an idea of those days, and make
something useful of your club."

The plan was popular with the boys of the club. When the subject was
proposed to Aunt Stanshy, she made the comment:

"Some sense in the idea. The boys will learn something."

"And then," said Miss Barry, "when