her to go and explain what it is she wants them to do, and she
feels that she can't afford to miss a single opportunity of the kind.
Every time she gives a talk she gets more people interested in the
cause, and they in turn interest other people, and that sends the ball
rolling still farther. Really, it is getting to be as exciting as a game
of 'Prisoners' Base,' seeing how many we can get on 'our side,' and when
she is out of town and I am left to 'guard base,' I surely feel as if I
am 'It,' and had the whole responsibility on my shoulders."

It must be confessed that it was Mary's pride in doing her work well
which made her a competent helper, more than any personal interest which
she took in Mrs. Blythe's plans. After the first round of visits to the
tenements she kept away from them as much as possible. The first month's
salary was accorded a silent jubilee in her room. Most of it had to go
for board and some few things she needed, but she started a savings
account and locked away her bank-book with the feeling that she was
laying the corner-stone of her home in the Happy Valley. True, there
wasn't the same joy in planning for it that there had been when she
looked forward to her mother sharing it with her, but it was with a
sense of deep satisfaction that she opened her account and carried home
the little book with its first entry.

On one of the occasions when Mrs. Blythe was away from home for several
days, an indignant letter came from some one in a town where she had
spoken the previous week, demanding to know why she was making such a
fight to have a law passed which would work hardship to worthy landlords
who were good citizens and prominent in all public charities. It named a
man in Riverville as a sample of the kind of citizen she was trying to
injure, and demanded so threateningly her reasons for doing so, that
Mary was troubled by its covert threats. Mrs. Blythe would not be back
till the end of the week, Mr. Blythe was in New York, and there was no
one in Riverville whom she knew well enough to discuss the situation
with. After worrying over it all one day and night, quite unexpectedly
she found out what she wanted to know from Sandford Berry.

He came out on the side porch where she was sitting after an early
lunch, and paused to light a cigar. Something prompted her to refer
casually to the man who had been spoken of in the letter as a model
citizen, and to ask if the reporter knew him.

"Oh, yes, h