-gained a new citizen--a boy of nine. A party of
farmers found him one day, sleeping in a pile of hay, in the market
corner. He lay so they could see how his face was bruised--and how,
though asleep, he tossed in pain. He awoke, and, getting up, walked
with a limp. Where he came from no one knew, and he would not tell;
but his appearance told its own story. He had run away from somewhere.
What had happened they could easily imagine.

"It was harvest-time and boys, even though minus a pedigree, were in
demand; so he was promptly put on a farm. Though only a child, he had
no one to care for him--and he was made to work ceaselessly.

"Years passed and brought a marked change in the boy. How he lived was
a marvel. It was a country of large families, and no one cared to
adopt him. Summers, he would work for his board and clothes, and in
winter, by the irony of Nature, for his board only; yet, perhaps
because it was the warmest place he knew, he managed to attend
district school.

"When a lad of fifteen he began to receive wages--and life's horizon
seemed to change. He dressed neatly, and in winter came to school in
the little prairie town. He was put in the lower grades with boys of
ten, and even here his blunders made him a laughing-stock; but not for
long, for he worked--worked always--and next year was put in the high
school.

"There he established a precedent--doing four years' work in
two--and graduated at eighteen. How he did it no one but he himself
knew--studying Sundays, holidays, and evenings, when he was so tired
that he had to walk the floor to keep awake--but he did it."

The speaker stopped a moment to look at his companion. "Is this a
bore? Somehow I can't help talking to-night."

"No, please go on," said the girl quickly.

"Well, the boy graduated--but not alone. For two years he had worked
side by side with a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl. From the time he
had first seen her she was his ideal--his divinity. And she had never
spoken with him five minutes in her life. After graduation, the girl
went away to a big university. Her parents were wealthy, and her every
wish was gratified."

Again the speaker hesitated. When he went on his face was hard, his
voice bitter.

"And the boy--he was poor and he went back to the farm. He was the
best hand in the country; for the work he received good wages. If he
had worked hard before, he worked now like a demon. He thought of the
girl away at college, and tri