ddressed in care of Mrs. Greig, Toronto, and forwarded by Robb. It
was from Evan's mother. She complained of not having received much
news lately, and hoped nothing was wrong. Above all things she hoped
her son was not working too hard. The son smiled as he read; if his
mother could only see him sitting in a lettuce patch, dairied and
sleeves up, what would she think? What would Lou and Frankie think?

The letter Evan answered with was diplomatic. It went, in part, like
this: "I am feeling better than I have felt for two years. The work I
am doing is not hard on me; I like it mighty well. My health was bad
for a while after landing in the city, but now it is changing for the
better every day. My appetite is past the decent stage. And what do
you know about this?--I'm saving money at last!" There were no
committals in the letter.

The second Saturday of Nelson's engagement with Jim Japers, the old
gentleman came around and said: "About time you was ringin' off, Mr.
Nelson." (He always addressed his new man respectfully: could an
ordinary mortal come out of a bank?) "It's Saturday, you know. Me and
wife always goes into town a-Saturday, and sometimes the kid. We count
it a day off, and now that's what we wants you to do."

A countryman always enjoys getting to anything pleasant in a roundabout
manner. Evan felt the good news coming and warmed up to a full
appreciation of it. Saturday afternoon in the bank had always been a
time for cleaning up loose ends of work.

"Thank you, Mr. Japers," he said, warmly; "I believe a show _would_ do
me good. I didn't have time to see many in Toronto."

"That's right, my boy, enjoy yourself. They say them Toronto shows
isn't as good as we get here. What do you think, now?"

"I don't imagine they are," replied Evan, quickly; and then, in one of
those absurd rushes after an idea to make plausible a consciously
absurd utterance, "I suppose it sort of--they sort of--"

"Yes, you're right," rejoined Japers, fully believing that he and
Nelson between them could outwit most theatrical critics. The gardener
and his assistant blathered away until Miss Japers was obliged to float
her ribbons out of the front door in a dazzling hint that the family
party was ready.

The Japers did not wait for Evan to dress; Lizzie was constrained to do
so, but her mother looked so uncomfortably fussed up that the girl had
compassion, and left the romantic excitement of a bankclerk's pre