Captain Atherton left Cliffmore one day to visit Avondale, and get some papers that he remembered having left in his safe.
As he walked up the path he noticed what fine care the place had received during his absence. The lawn had never looked so green, the plants and shrubs had never blossomed so freely.
As he stood looking about him the click of the lawn mower caused him to turn just as Gyp came around the corner of the house.
"You've worked wonders here, Gyp," the Captain said. "I always had a fairly good lawn, and much could be said of the vines and the flowers, but everything looks far better than it ever did before. Where did you get the knowledge to do the work so well, and so successfully?"
"I asked the gardener down in the Center, the one who takes care of the parks, to tell me how to do my best for you, and then—I did it," Gyp said, simply.
"Work like that at whatever you undertake, and you'll be pretty sure to achieve success," said Captain Atherton.
"I mean to," Gyp replied, firmly, and as he looked after the fine figure ascending the steps to the porch he murmured:
"I'll do my very best for him," while Captain John Atherton said, as he opened the door of his safe to take out the papers that he needed: "That boy is worth helping, and I'll help him."
With the genial Captain away, the housekeeper felt free to enjoy a bit of gossip, and seeing the cook in the garden of the next house, she slipped out of the rear door, and across the lawn, where, that her coming might look like a mere happening, she took a bit of paper from her pocket, and commenced scribbling upon it.
She wished the cook in the next garden to think that she was jotting down a few things that she wished to remember.