"I thought Tom Winn was in it," said Annie, a little tartly.
"And why shouldn't he be? I tell you what, if we ever do get that board outside, it will be all Tom's doing. See what a fellow I was till I got pulled up short, and learned to know the Winns. I tell you what, Annie, poor Tom's illness did me a world of good. For it made me think, and a fellow ain't much use in the world till he does learn to think a bit. And so I feel as though I owe them a debt that I've got to pay somehow, for Tom being ill like that was awful hard on his mother; and it was more my fault than his that he caught the fever. So if ever I get the chance of doing any of 'em a good turn, I'll do it, you bet."
"But what can you do?" asked his sister.
"How can I tell? I shall try and get that bicycle, if Jackson will sell it, and go and see them sometimes, and then, perhaps, I may find out. There is no telling what may come in a fellow's way; and when he begins to think a bit, why, he may be able to put this and that together, and see how he can help a friend. Tom now wants to be a gardener, and where I'm at work, they teach chaps to be first-rate gardeners—real tip-toppers; that would be good enough for Tom Winn.
"Well, I mean to keep my eyes and ears open about how the fellows get in there. I know some of them have to pay a pile of money for the chance. Tom couldn't do that now his father's dead, but there might be some other way of getting in, you know; and if I could only find out, and get that bicycle to go and see Tom, why—"
"If ifs and ands were pots and pans," laughed Annie, "Jack Bond would soon have a bicycle."
Jack made a dash as though he would pull her hair, and then the brother and sister turned into the woods, and went hunting for wild flowers, and the talk about bicycles and Tom Winn was forgotten for a little while.
[CHAPTER IX.]
JACK'S BICYCLE.
"WELL, boy, I've got the job," and Jack's father grinned and rubbed his hands with supreme satisfaction, as he looked first at Jack and then at his wife across the supper table that Saturday night.