didn't earn any more this morning, if it would have kept you from
doing those little kindnesses. You need your clothes bad enough, in
all conscience, but it is better to smooth out the way for people as
you go along. Old Solomon was right, loving favour _is_ better than
silver and gold."

Todd's sunburned face grew so red, as his mother unconsciously
stumbled upon the motto that he had chosen, that he turned a
somersault on the kitchen floor to hide his embarrassment. He need not
have been so confused, for she was always saying such things.

[Illustration]

Sales were not always so good as they were the first hot morning. Many
a day Todd wandered all over the little town, stopping at every door,
only to be met by a disappointing "no." Many a time, when the hot
pavements burned his bare feet and he was tired and discouraged, he
longed for the wheel which he hoped would some day be his; and every
evening, on his way home, he stopped to look in at Stark Brothers'
window, to feast his eyes on that bicycle inside.

One evening, as he stood looking in, Chicky Wiggins slipped up and
slapped him on the back in his friendly way. "Hullo, Todd," he called,
"admiring my wheel, are you? I'm letting it stay in there awhile to
accommodate Stark Brothers, but the truth is I've been thinking
seriously of having to take it out. The company sends me on such long
errands that I seem to be getting more walking than the doctor
prescribed. It doesn't agree with me."

"You mean _my_ wheel," laughed Todd. "I'll lend it to you sometimes,