e "Member from Cranberry Centre," or fire them with
speeches of famous statesmen. Charity fairs could not get on without
him, and in the store where he worked he did many an ingenious job,
which made him valued for his mechanical skill, as well as for his
energy and integrity.

Mrs. Minot liked to have him with her sons, because they also were to
paddle their own canoes by and by, and she believed that, rich or poor,
boys make better men for learning to use the talents they possess, not
merely as ornaments, but tools with which to carve their own fortunes;
and the best help toward this end is an example of faithful work, high
aims, and honest living. So Ralph came often, and in times of trouble
was a real rainy-day friend. Jack grew very fond of him during
his imprisonment, for the good youth ran in every evening to get
commissions, amuse the boy with droll accounts of the day's adventures,
or invent lifts, bed-tables, and foot-rests for the impatient invalid.
Frank found him a sure guide through the mechanical mysteries which he
loved, and spent many a useful half-hour discussing cylinders, pistons,
valves, and balance-wheels. Jill also came in for her share of care and
comfort; the poor little back lay all the easier for the air-cushion
Ralph got her, and the weary headaches found relief from the spray
atomizer, which softly distilled its scented dew on the hot forehead
till she fell asleep.

Round the beds of Jack and Jill met and mingled the schoolmates of whom
our story treats. Never, probably, did invalids have gayer times than
our two, after a week of solitary confinement; for school gossip crept
in, games could not be prevented, and Christmas secrets were concocted
in those rooms till they were regular conspirators' dens, when they were
not little Bedlams.

After the horn and bead labors were over, the stringing of pop-corn on
red, and cranberries on white, threads, came next, and Jack and Jill
often looked like a new kind of spider in the pretty webs hung about
them, till reeled off to bide their time in the Christmas closet. Paper
flowers followed, and gay garlands and bouquets blossomed, regardless of
the snow and frost without. Then there was a great scribbling of names,
verses, and notes to accompany the steadily increasing store of odd
parcels which were collected at the Minots', for gifts from every one
were to ornament the tree, and contributions poured in as the day drew
near.

But the secret which