a playday, he
came rip-roariously home, time and again, and demanded his book, to get
more money for drink. The scrimmages that grandmother had with him about
that book would have been highly ludicrous if a vein of tragedy had not
run underneath them.

One cause of Jim's inconsistent behavior about his bank account was the
bad company he fell into on his playdays. After he had imbibed somewhat,
those boon companions would urge him to go home and get his bank book;
for under the influence of drink Jim was a noisy talker and likely to
boast of his savings.

None of us, except grandmother, knew where Jim's bank book was, and
after one memorable experience with him the old lady always disappeared
when she saw him drive in. The second time, Jim actually searched the
house for his book; but grandmother had taken it and stolen away to a
neighbor's house. Once or twice afterwards Jim came and searched for his
book; and I remember that the old Squire had doubts whether it was best
for us to withhold it from him. Grandmother, however, had no such
scruples.

"He shan't have it! Those rum sellers shan't get it from him!" she
exclaimed.

When he had recovered from the effects of his playday Jim was always
fervently glad that he had not spent his savings.

But his bad habits rapidly grew on him, and we fully expected that his
savings, which, thanks to grandmother's resolute efforts, now amounted
to nearly four hundred dollars, would eventually be squandered on drink.

"It's no use," Addison often said. "It will all go that way in the end,
and the more there is of it the worse will be the final crash."

Others thought so, too--among them Miss Wilma Emmons, who taught the
district school that summer. Miss Emmons was tall, slight and pale, with
dark hair and large light-blue eyes. She would have been very pretty
except for her very high, narrow forehead that not even her hair, combed
low, could prevent from being noticeable. She made you feel that she was
constantly intent on something that worried her.

As time passed, we came to learn the cause of her anxiety. She had two
brothers, younger than herself, bright, promising boys whom she was
trying to help through college. The three were orphans, without means;
and Wilma was working hard, summer and winter, at anything and
everything that offered profit, in an effort to give those boys a
liberal education; besides teaching school, she went round the
countryside in all weathers