not forgotten how the “Representative” in his county at home had given him confidence. He determined to stay right with this boy until he saw him past the turning-place. When he let him out of the car at the store rendezvous, he urged:
“Now, you’ll come to-morrow and let them fix you up? I’ll go with you.”
The boy eyed him shrewdly for a minute, then his face softened.
“I guess you’re all right,” he conceded. “I guess you wouldn’t take it as any trouble, but that’s not sayin’ what the others ’ud think. I’ll think it over. If I can bring myself to it, I’ll call in an’ tell you before I go back.”
In the office Billy sorted over his mail, and pushed it away. Some of the letters dealt with marketing news that meant hundreds of dollars gain or loss to the community; one carried a promise of a co-operative creamery that had been one of his main ambitions for the district—but these things didn’t seem so important to-night. If the clinic to-morrow could remove one boy’s handicap and give him the chance for life that Nature meant him to have, it would be worth more than several reforms for more profitable farming. If he were not taken care of now the chances were that he would never be. He decided to walk over to the store and make
sure of seeing him before he went home. Then the phone called him.
“Oh, you are there at last!” It was the soft little purring tone that always set his pulses pounding. “Could you possibly run up for a little while?”
“I’m afraid—” he began.
“But listen,” she interrupted. “I’m going to help you to-morrow, you know, and mother and I have some plans we’d like to talk over with you. We’re delighted that you’re having such a distinguished surgeon as Dr. Knight. It’s really very unusual for him to go out of the city at all, and we thought you wouldn’t want him to go to the Village Inn—it’s quite impossible, you know, so mother thought you’d better have him come here. Dad has met him, I think, and we’d be glad to have him. Perhaps Miss McDonald would come, too, though she’s so used to going to all sorts of places.”
“All right,” he agreed, absently. “And you’re going to help”—that was the thing that impressed him. “That’s fine.”