see the Cayugas beat the Wanderers,
that's all; an' Abe Mackinnon's mother said he could ask me to come back
to tea with them. Can I, Mother?"

"There's no objection that I know of," said Mrs Murchison, shaking her
apron free of stray potato-parings, "but you won't get money for the
lacrosse match or anything else from your father today, _I_ can assure
you. They didn't do five dollars worth of business at the store all day
yesterday, and he's as cross as two sticks."

"Oh, that's all right." Lorne jingled his pocket and Oliver took
a fascinated step toward him. "I made thirty cents this morning,
delivering papers for Fisher. His boy's sick. I did the North Ward--took
me over'n hour. Guess I can go all right, can't I?"

"Why, yes, I suppose you can," said his mother. The others were dumb.
Oliver hunched his shoulders and kicked at the nearest thing that had
paint on it. Abby clung to the pump handle and sobbed aloud. Lorne
looked gloomily about him and went out. Making once more for the back
fence, he encountered Alexander in the recognized family retreat. "Oh,
my goodness!" he said, and stopped. In a very few minutes he was back
in the kitchen, followed sheepishly by Alexander, whose grimy face
expressed the hope that beat behind his little waistcoat.

"Say, you kids," he announced, "Alec's got four cents, an' he says he'll
join up. This family's going to celebrate all right. Come on down town."

No one could say that the Murchisons were demonstrative. They said
nothing, but they got their hats. Mrs Murchison looked up from her
occupation.

"Alec," she said, "out of this house you don't go till you've washed
your face. Lorne, come here," she added in a lower voice, producing a
bunch of keys. "If you look in the right-hand corner of the top small
drawer in my bureau you'll find about twenty cents. Say nothing about
it, and mind you don't meddle with anything else. I guess the Queen
isn't going to owe it all to you."

CHAPTER II

"We've seen changes, Mr Murchison. Aye. We've seen changes."

Dr Drummond and Mr Murchison stood together in the store door, over
which the sign "John Murchison: Hardware," had explained thirty years of
varying commercial fortune. They had pretty well begun life together in
Elgin. John Murchison was one of those who had listened to Mr Drummond's
trial sermon, and had given his vote to "call" him to the charge. Since
then there had been few Sundays when, morning and evening, Mr Mur