company for sending him out of town. Then he gave him some money to
buy a railroad ticket, and told him just where to go, and what to do
and everything.

"Well, there was a wreck on the road, somewhere along in the night,
and lots of people were hurt. Chicky got a bad cut on his head that
bled awfully, and sprained his shoulder besides. But when he shook
himself together, and got somebody to tie up his head, he found that
the train would be seven hours behind time on account of that
smash-up. And that kid just started off on foot. He walked all the
rest of the night, and, when he got to the town where he was to leave
the papers, he was so near done for that he had to hire a hack to haul
him up to the man's house. It turned out that he got there just in
time to save the stranger a big lot of property in some way or
another, and the man said he'd been looking for years for a boy like
that, who could be faithful to a trust, and now that he'd found him he
intended to stand by him. I think it was real brave of Chicky to go
all that way in the dark, all alone on a strange road. I'll bet it
will be in all the papers."

[Illustration]

"And I'll bet he'll get the bicycle now," said Ab, gloomily, as he sat
down on the wheel-barrow and kicked his heels against it. "I feel it
in my bones. All my summer's work's gone for nothing."

"I wanted it awfully bad, too," said Todd, with a sigh and a sudden
clouding of his bright little face. "Of course, I'd be glad for Chicky
to have it, when he hasn't any home or nothing, but I've worked _so_
hard for it, and I can't help feeling disappointed."