CHAPTER II.
Saturday morning was an ideal autumn day; a day children delighted to go into the woods after hickory-nuts.
A few moments before eight o’clock the gentleman was slowly walking around the great lot when he saw Jimmy running at full speed down the street towards him.
Under the great trees were a dozen little boys and girls, and the air was filled with their merry laughter as they excitedly gathered into their baskets the hickory-nuts that Jimmy had so kindly dropped for their pleasure and happiness.
“They tell me, Jimmy, you’re a bad boy,” said the gentleman as they sat on a stump of a tree, in sight of the children.
Jimmy made no reply.
“Well, I don’t care what any one says,” added the gentleman, “I don’t believe it. Your little act with the hickory-nuts has taught me a lesson I never learned in books. No boy would do that unless he has some good qualities in him. I feel honored to have this privilege of seeing those children so happy this morning, and to think who did all this. Jimmy,” and he took his little hand in his, “I want you to make me a promise—I want you always to be my friend. What do you say?”
This was something Jimmy never heard of before. He was accustomed to being kicked, and censured, and for a man to ask him to be a friend was, what he afterwards called, “a new deal.”
“Sure thing, I will,” he said frankly.
“Now I want you to come down to my office, Monday after school, and we will talk over something that I want you to do for me.”