re
is the longest stretch of all, nearly twenty-two miles."

"Oh, dear!" groaned Grace. "We'll never do it. Why did you arrange for
such a long walk, Betty?"

"I couldn't help it. There were no other relatives available, and I
couldn't have any made to order. There was no stopping place between here
and home."

"Oh, I dare say I can stand it," murmured Grace. "But I guess I won't
wear my new shoes in that case. Twenty-two miles!"

"It is quite a stretch," said Mr. Blackford.

He helped Grace put away the alcohol stove, and the cups in which the
chocolate had been served. They were washed in the little stream, and
would be cleansed again at the house of Betty's cousin.

"You haven't asked us when we are going to give you that five hundred
dollar bill," said Mollie, as they started for Judgeville.

"Well," spoke Mr. Blackford, with a laugh, "I didn't want to seem too
anxious. I knew that it was safe where you had put it, Miss Nelson," and
he looked at Betty. "Besides, I have been without it so long now that it
seems almost as if I never had it. And from all the good it is going to
do me, perhaps I might be better off without it now."

"We didn't exactly understand what you meant by the note you wrote,"
said Betty.

"Well, I'll tell you how that was," he said, frankly. "You see, I was
left considerable money by a rich relative, but I had bad luck. Maybe I
didn't have a good business head, either. Anyhow, I lost sum after sum in
investments that didn't pan out, and in businesses that failed. I got
down to my last big bill, and then I heard of this little business I
could get control of in New York.

"I said I'd make that my last venture, and to remind myself how
desperate my chances were I just jotted down those words, and pinned the
note to the bill. Then I must have gotten excited in my dream. I know
just before I fell asleep I kept taking the bill out of the pocketbook,
and looking at it to make sure I had it. I might have done that while
half asleep, and it blew out of the window. That's how it probably
happened, and you girls picked up the money. I can't thank you enough.
But I'm afraid it will come to me too late to use as I had intended,"
the man went on, with a sigh.

"Why?" asked Betty.

"Because the option on the business I was going to buy expires at
midnight to-night, and as you say the five hundred dollars is in
Deepdale, I don't see how I am going to get it in time to be of
any service."

"Is