Flip's Islands of Providence""

o field-day contests he had carried off the honours, and now he surpassed

he eaves with long, licking tongues. It was as he had feared. He had forgotten to put out the light, the curtains had blown over it, a

they ran, bumping precious old family portraits against wash-tubs and coal-scuttles, emptying bureau drawers into sheets, and dumping books and dishes in a pile in the orchard, in wildest confusion. Everything was taken out of the lower story. Even the carpets were ripped u

flushed from his frantic exertions, Philippa came up

, or they'll be spoiled. Mrs. Sears has offered us part of her house. There are four empty rooms

e warning thunder, hurried the scattered household goods into

cepted Mrs. Sears's offer of her guest-chamber for the night. Macklin had gone home with the minister's son. Alec had had many invitations, but he refused them all. With a morbid feeling that because his car

e had run away from. Now, as he stretched himself wearily out on the mattress, it flashed across his mind t

t just when we need it the most. Goodness only knows what we are going to do n

of darkness. All sorts of rebellious thoughts flocked through the boy's mind, as he lay there in the darkness of the empty room, thinking bitterly of his thwarted plans. Midnight always magnifies troubles, and as he brooded ove

he night before, which sent her stunned and heart-sick to her retreat in the old apple-tree, had faded into the background in the excitement of the fire. She thought of it all the t

h contagious good humour. Alec could not understand it. Even his Aunt Eunice was not as downcast as he had pictured her in the night, over the loss of her old home. With patient, steady effort, she moved along,

maddening m

ed by storm

trust my sp

hat God

ippa, laughingly waving her duster i

g a minute, she dropped down on the floor beside him, upsetting a saucer full of tacks as she did so. "Say, Al

't even see him. Another fellow was there ahead of me, and the fire-alarm sounded while I waited, and t

ome word for you

e'll ever think of me. Such luck as mine is, anyhow! It was my anxiety to get the place that made me go off and leave the lamp burning, and now I've not only missed the last chance I'll ever have, but I've been the means of burning the roo

se and home, but it might have been lots worse. All the down-stairs furniture was saved, and the insurance company is going to put us up a nice little cottage as soon as possible. We were not wi

clean, waiting for us. And it will be the same way about your getting a place if you don't lose faith and courage. You'll float

t, Flip," answered Alec, impatiently, poundi

, my singing doesn't set your teeth on edge half as bad as your sour looks do mine. I wouldn't be suc

her, but she thought, guiltily, as she ran, "Now I've done it! He'll be furious all day;

e shelves. All Alec's had been burned. He had lost more than any of them, for his was the only up-stairs room tha

uch, especially when one is a ten-year-old boy, whose sturdy legs can make countless trips up and

even better than those in the old house, for the library rugs and curtains had found place there, with some of the best pictures and

brac on the mantel. "But shut your eyes a minute, and-abracadabra! it's the dining-room." As she spoke, she whisked a w

ack, if you have any legs left to toddle on, I wish you'd run out and get me a handful of purple asters to put in this gla

nothing to say to her since her outburst up-stairs, and now, ignoring he

e you want me to do, A

ere a little while before, and he threw himself into it with a sigh of relief. Swinging back and forth in the shelter of the vines, the feeling of comfort began to steal ove

t instantly, and he did not hear the footsteps going past him a few minutes later, nor h

y there blinking and listening, trying to recognize the deep

Alec heard her say in a tremulous tone,

CERTAINLY SEN

of his home for awhile. Dick had lived five years in the old house that had just burned, when Eunice and Sally Macklin we

's last visit to his home. He had thought every year that he would come back for another visit, he told Miss Eunice, but he had put it off from season to season, hard pressed by the demands of business, and now it was too late for him to ever see the old homestead again. He had seen an account of the fire in a paper which

e been worried for weeks over Alec's future. There is no outlook here in the village for him. If you could on

I am sure that I can get him into something or other very soon. You know that I would do anything for Sally's boy, and when you add to that the fact that he is Alex

e had not felt in weeks. There was a patter of bare feet down the garden path, and, peering out between t

nt down the step to meet him. "Mother said to eat it while it wa

the gap in the fence made by a missing picket. Alec carried the dish round the house to the

ything for supper but coffee and rolls and eggs. He's certainly bringing good things in his wake. How delicious that chicken do

t itself from Philippa's heart at this sign of Alec's return to his merry old self. All during supper she kept glancing at him, for, absorbed in their gue

ected to a very close cross-examination as to his capabilities and preferences. The train was late, and as they sat in the wai

ving somebody a trial, but nobody measures up to his requirements. Whoever takes it must go through a regular apprenticeship in the factory and learn the business from the ground up. According to his ideas, you'd not be fitted until you'd tried your hand at every piece of machinery in the factory, and knew how to turn out a pair of shoes from the raw leather. The wages will be small at first. Some of the duties are disagreeable, many of the requiremen

y life, but I have come to the point where I'd do anything honest to get a place somewhere out of this town. I'd eve

ess of tone that his listener scanned h

e me desperate at times. If they should hear about him in Salesbury and turn me down on his accou

sleep in a trundle-bed in the old lady's room, and along late in the night she was awakened by a very earnest voice. She sat up in the little trundle-bed to listen, and there was the old saint on her knees, praying for-now, what do you suppose? For 'all her posterity to the latest

first harvest, but you have been enjoying it all your life. He did a thousand unrecorded kindnesses that brought him no returns seemingly, but 'bread cast upon the waters' does come back after many days, my boy, every time. And you will be eating the results of that scattering all your life. The little that I may be able to do for you will only be the result of kindness he showed me, and which I could not repay, but am glad n

ager in a few days," he continued, hurriedly. "I have only a few stops to make this time on my way to Salesbury. Probably I'll have something definite t

Alec returned. The moonlight nights were chilly, but she could not

is hopeful interview, "wasn't it just like a lovely story to have the traditional u

e of my darkest night. Salesbury is four hundred miles from here, Flip, and we sha'n't see each other often, so