ighly regarded that he was able to set a high standard for his boys
and keep them up to it.

For every vacancy there was a score on the waiting list. Every mother in
the parish wanted her boy to get into the Club. Frequently the director
would be stopped in the street by a good mother who would say to him,
"Father, my boy Jimmie is one of the best boys in the parish. Won't you
please have him in mind for the next vacancy?"

Now and then, however, a boy of the wrong sort would get into the Club;
one whom nothing good seemed to affect. The boys themselves usually
took such a one in hand, and made it pretty hot for him. They knew that
their own welfare depended on the general conduct, and they took good
care of it.

Bill Daly was what the boys called a "tough nut." They nicknamed him
"Bull." "Bull" had got into the Club by the kind-heartedness of Father
Boone. His father was a drunkard and his mother was a hard-working
woman. Bill was the only child. Father Boone had got him a good job
downtown and placed him in the Club to help him along and to put a
little refinement in him. The boys knew that he was Father Boone's ward,
as it were, and tolerated a lot from him, but Bill took the
consideration which he received as a sign of his "pull," of his
superiority over the others. He was the oldest boy in the Club and
different from all the others. On several occasions a fist fight was
barely averted when he tried to bully some smaller boy.

The boys never told Father Boone about Bill,--first, because the
director had let them know that he did not want any tattling, and
secondly, because most of them felt sorry for the fellow, and saw that
his one chance for making something of himself was by remaining in the
Club. If they fancied that Father Boone knew nothing about Bill,
however, they were much mistaken. In fact, there was little going on
that he did not know. But as he said, "A man has to see a lot and yet
not see it." For reasons of his own, he saw and yet did not see the
doings of Bill.

When Frank Mulvy was elected secretary, Bill had tried hard to get the
place, but as soon as he saw that the sentiment was all for Frank, he
joined in. Nevertheless, he had it in for Frank. He was tired hearing
the fellows say "Frank this," and "Frank that." He could not understand
how, without trying for it at all, Frank got the esteem and affection of
everybody.

One day Father Boone came into the Club and announced that he wanted a