great interest, any further lapses were suffered to pass without
correction or remark.

Jim's love for and sympathy with all animals, especially such as were
feeble or disabled in any way, was a well-known trait. A maimed or
otherwise afflicted dog, horse, cat, or bird was sure to meet with more
favor in his eyes than the most beautiful and perfect of its kind; and
he had a horror of shooting birds or other game, which was quite
remarkable in a boy of his antecedents. He even questioned the right
and expediency of killing animals for food, although he never objected
to partaking thereof when it was set before him. Fish, only, seemed to
him legitimate prey in the way of sport; and for all noxious insects,
snakes, or vermin of any description, he had a perfect hatred, setting
at naught the principles of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty,
and really taking a most reprehensible delight in tormenting them,
altogether at variance with his feeling for other creatures.

"Bill," I said, turning to that youth as the most practical and
clear-headed of the group, "tell me if you know what it is that Jim
desires to find out, and the rest of you keep silence, and do not
interrupt."

"Well, Miss Amy," answered Bill, "it's just this. Jim was readin' in
the newspaper about a' old lady, how she left all her money--an' she'd
worked hard for it too, makin' a show of herself on account of bein' so
fat--to keep a hospital for all sorts of hurt an' sick animals an'
birds; an' Jim, he's just about as much took up with animals an' natur
an' things of that kind as she must ha' been, even if he ain't so fat;
an' he's got it on his mind to set up his own hospital, an' let Tony
Blair an' his sister Matty keep it an' take care of the animals. Tony's
lame, you know, and Matty's hunchbacked, an' can't work; so it's kind
of beginnin' on the two-legged animals--at least, Tony's only one
legged, but he has a right to be two, an' it's a help to them, too."

Poor Tony Blair, with his deformed sister, had formerly been associates
and chums of Bill and Jim, in the days when these last had themselves
been young vagabonds, waifs, and strays, buffetting with a hard world;
and that sentiment in Jim, which was "took up with animals an' natur,"
had led him to befriend the helpless creatures, and to do them such
kind turns as fell in his way. Overwhelming modesty, or a desire to
hide his light under a bushel, were not distinguishing characteristics
of J