hat you have ever done!"

"Jack doesn't know anything about Lou?" Jim demanded anxiously.

"Certainly not. He has only been here a quarter of an hour, and I kept
her out of the way. But, James, you cannot be serious! You cannot mean
to marry this nameless waif?"

"Stop right there, Aunt Emmy," he interrupted her firmly. "I'm going to
marry, if she will have me, your ward whom you have legally adopted; I
mean, you will have adopted her by the time she has grown up. But I
don't intend to be nosed out by any of these debutante-grabbers; I'm
going to have everything settled before her studies are finished and you
bring her out. I saw her first!"

"H-m. We shall see," Aunt Emmy remarked dryly, adding: "But that can
wait for the moment. What was this ridiculous wager all about, and how
did you get into such horrible scrapes?"

"The whole thing came out of an idle discussion Jack Trimble, Billy
Hollis and I had at the club one night concerning human nature. It
drifted into a debate about charity in general and the kindness shown
toward strangers by country folk in particular, with myself in the
minority, of course," Jim explained.

"They each wagered me a thousand against my five hundred that I couldn't
walk from Buffalo to New York in twenty-five days with only five dollars
in my pocket to start with, and work my way home without begging nor
accepting more than a quarter for each job I managed to secure in any
one time.

"The idea was to see how many of these hard-boiled up-State farmers we
hear so much about would offer you the hospitality reputed to be
extended only by the rural population of the South and West, and how
many would give a foot-sore and weary traveler a lift upon the way.
There were other conditions, too; I was not to use my own surname, not
to go a foot out of the State into either Pennsylvania or New Jersey. I
was not to beg, borrow, or steal, and for the occasional twenty-five
cents I might earn I could only purchase food or actual necessities, not
use it for transportation, and I must not beat my way by stealing rides
on boats or trains or any other conveyances."

While Aunt Emmy sat staring at him in speechless amazement, Jim produced
his little red note-book and laid it before her.

"There's the route I chose over the mountains, my expense account for
each day, and the names and addresses of the people who helped to prove
my contention that, take them by and large, the people of my own State