Flip's Islands of Providence""

and peered into the mirror above his wash-stand. Then, although he had come up-stairs fully determined to at

e older I look, the more likely he'll be to trust me with a responsible position. Still," he continued, surveying himself critically, "I might make a more favourable im

led down the blind over his window and lighted the lamp. Then, opening a box that he took f

y made me his namesake, that this was all of his pr

ur weeks. The happy-go-lucky boy of seventeen seemed to have changed in that time to a morose man. Jun

and her hair had whitened long before its time, she had allowed no part of her burdens to touch their thoughtless young lives. It was only lately that Alec had been aroused to the fact that she had any burdens. He was rehearsing them all now, as he rubbed the lather over his chin, so busily t

door. "Is that you, Flip?" he called, although he knew no on

! I want to ask

nstant, divided between a desire to let her see him in the manly act of sh

indifferent manner, as if it were an every-day occurrence with him.

, shrieking with laughter. Long practice in bandying words with her brother had made her an expert tease. Usually they both enjoyed such

he said presently, in a stern tone that made her stare. Never,

lows and peered at him curiously, twisting one of

bear for days and days. I asked Aunt Eunice just now, while we were washing the supper dishes, what had changed you so. You used

ever finding any position worth while in this sleepy little village. She didn't know that I saw it, but while she was talking a tear splashed right down in the dish-water, and I made up my mind that

're a big girl, Flip-nearly as tall as she is, if you are only fifteen. You're bound to hear it sometime, and in my opinion it

ND TO HEAR I

urged, her cu

nd a pretty

gaze steadily, yet with a queer kind of chil

nd I have been living on all these years

father Macklin's property, I suppose. He div

hat she could keep us in school, and there's hardly anything left but this old house and the ground it stands on. She never told me until this summer. That's why I took the first job that off

s been my ambition to be a banker like grandfather. Since I failed to get that, nobody, not even Aunt Eunice, knows how hard I've tried to get into some steady, good-paying job. I've been to every business man in the village, and done everything a fellow could do, seems to me, but in a littl

voice came floating up to them from the porch below. Sitting on the steps in the twilight, with his bare feet doubled under him, he was reciting something to his Aunt Eunice in a

and the Catechism. It was Whittier's hymn-"The Eternal Goodness." She had paid them a penny a stanza for learning it, and as there are twenty

of the alphabet. As Macklin's high-pitched voice reached them, Philippa joined in in a singsong und

where His

nded palm

now I ca

is love

ymn, there's always some island ready for you to be washed up on. How do you know but that you're

as he answered, roughly: "Bosh! That's all right for people who ca

ou mean to say that you don't believe in Providenc

ry fellow for himself; sink or swim-and if you're not strong enou

hink you'd be ashamed to talk so! Any boy that had such a grand old grandfather as you! He didn't have any better chan

bling with an emotion he was trying hard to control. In t

a piece of court-plaster. He was a long time adjusting it to his satisfaction, for the words he wanted to say would not take shape. He knew what he h

ng in the blood, I suppose. That's where all grandfather's property went, to pay it back; all but this house and the little Aunt Eunice kept for our support. And that's why mother came back here with us and died of a broken heart! Now do you wonder that I can't believe in the eternal goodness when it starts me out in life handicapped like that? Do you blame me when I say I am go

her brother's lips. She was white and trembled. "O Alec," she gasped, with a shudder, "i

, and he'll have to be knocked flat with the f

rd. "To think of the way I've prided myself on our family!" she said, in a husky voi

-stairs the big kitchen c

brush, he began polishing his shoes in nervous haste. "It's

ow he could take any interest in anything more in li

e young fellow about my age to go into it. 'Somebody who can keep his mouth shut,' he said, 'write a good letter, and make a favourable impression on strangers in introducing the goods.' Stumpy Fisher introduced me to him last night, and he gave me a hint of what he might do if I suited. Seemed to think I wa

eated Philippa; "why, he-he's the m

"They do gamble in there, I know, and sometimes have a pretty tough

self up and faced his sister, "There, skip along now, Flip, like a good girl

ble nightmare," she said. "What you have just told me about our-him, you know, and then your g

demonstrative in her affection, she threw her arms round his neck

not going to be separated for ever. From what the man told me of the business, I'm sure that I can make enough in a year or so to send for you. Then you can come and keep house for me, and we'll pay back every cent we've cost Aunt Eunice, so she'll have something

k stairs and across the kitchen. When the outer door closed behind her, he knew as well as if he

pped into his best coat. Pulling up the shade, he peered out through the open

iss Eunice and Macklin from the porch. Alec could hear their voices in the sitting-room.

lamp for one more scrutiny of himself in the little mirror, he s

uld summon that he asked to be shown to Mr. Humphrey Long's room.

hour with a stranger who had taken supper with him, and had left orders

inutes were slipping by so fast that he was afraid there would be no time for his turn before the bus started to the train. What if the other man should be taken in h

n unusual sound in the quiet little village. Noisy shouts in the next street proclaimed that the volunteer fire brigade was dr

the north, he judged the distance to be, an angry glow

Bob?" called a voic

c's mind the remembrance of the muslin curtains flapping across his face, and the lamp left near them on his desk. Had