“I’m afraid you’re about right there, sir,” Harry admitted. “Even I can notice that boys are getting out of hand very fast. They hesitate at nothing when out for a good time. And I run across a great many boys loitering on the street corners as late as ten o’clock at night.”
“Mostly because their homes have not been made attractive enough for them,” the observant minister went on to say. “But I’ve tried in vain to get the co-operation of their parents. Something else must be done, some way found whereby we can obtain and hold the interest of these half-grown lads. And Harry, a brilliant idea flashed into my mind last night while I sat alone brooding in my study.”
“I should like to hear what it is, then.”
“First of all I want to tell you, Harry, that I shall surely need your hearty backing if the plan I have in view is going to meet with a shadow of success.”
“Before I hear a word of your scheme, sir, I can promise you that much,” said the younger member of the newly reorganized firm of Bartlett & Company, with hearty emphasis.
“I felt sure I could count on your whole-souled assistance, Harry!” Mr. Holwell exclaimed, joyously. “Like myself you believe in boys to the utmost.”
“Then tell me what it is you have been considering, sir,” urged Harry.
“A radical step in our service for young men and boys,” said the minister, with flashing eyes, and enthusiasm beaming from every feature of his rosy, healthy face. “It is nothing more or less than to start a junior organization in the Y. M. C. A., giving younger lads a chance to form a club, granting them the privileges of the gymnasium, the reading rooms, and admission to the lecture course as well. What do you say to that, Harry?”
“A splendid scheme, Mr. Holwell, and I’ll go into it with all my heart and soul.”
“Come over to the parsonage tonight, then, Harry, and fetch your father along. I’ll have a few other people, ladies as well, present, and we’ll talk over the project; but I tell you now once for all we must push it through; no halfway measure will do. Call it eight this evening, Harry. And here’s wishing great luck to the Boys’ Department of the Y. M. C. A.!”