e, Aunt Zelie," he said, finding her alone that evening, "Jim
is a funny kind of a boy. Ikey doesn't like him, but I think there is
a lot that is good in him. He is bright, I can tell you, and there is
nothing really mean about him, but his father gives him too much
money. I suppose that isn't ever good for a boy."

"I hardly think it is," she said, smiling at Carl's judicial manner.

"When he first came to school he thought he could get around anybody
with his money, but he soon found the boys did not like it,--but
perhaps I'd better not ask him."

"Ask him by all means if you think he would like to come. I am willing
to trust your judgment."

There were many points of resemblance between Jim Carter and Carl.
Both stood well in their classes, were independent and popular with
their schoolmates, but their home surroundings were very different.
Mr. Carter was deeply engrossed in making money, having become
suddenly rich through a lucky speculation. Ambitious for his only son,
he wished him to have all the advantages of education which he himself
had missed. So Jim was sent to a good school, but was taught at home
by precept and example that to get money was the chief thing.

Mrs. Carter was a good-natured, loud-voiced woman, who idolized her
son, and could not deny him anything. It was the want of refinement,
which Carl felt but could not express, and the utter lack of home
training, that were responsible for Jim's faults.

His good-nature and real generosity won him friends among those who
were at first disgusted by his boasting and display, and with a keen
instinct for popularity Jim quickly learned the lesson.

He admired Carl Hazeltine and was flattered by his invitation.

"We want to get up a club," Carl said. "My aunt is going to help us,
and we mean to have some fun; I'd like to have you, if you will come."

He accepted on the spot, though he wondered a little why an "aunt"
should have anything to do with it. His experience with such relatives
was limited to a middle-aged person who wore a shawl the year around,
and regarded boys as necessary evils, to be sent upon as many errands
as possible in the course of the day. Indeed, he would have considered
his mother, of whom he was very fond, decidedly out of place among
his friends.

He was the last to arrive on Friday evening, and he looked about him
with some curiosity as Carl led the way to the star chamber. As they
passed the library door he had a glimp