Chapter 3

"The gentleman was sick and couldn't go to take some important papers somewhere that they had to go, and he was a stranger, and didn't know anybody in town. But he told Chicky it was very particular that they should get there on time, and he would make it all right with the 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."

"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."

All the way home his heart felt as heavy as lead, and, when he came in sight of the little tumble-down cottage, his eyes were blurred with tears for a moment.

"Todd, dear," called his mother, running out to meet him, "guess who has been here. It was Judge Parker's wife. Yes, I know all about your secret now. She told me the men have finally decided that Luke Wiggins has won the wheel. But she is so disappointed on your account, and told me so many nice things that people have said about you that I just sat down and cried. I was so proud and happy. And, Todd, what do you think she left here for you to take care of? She'll pay you well for doing it, and it will be yours to use just as if it were your own,--a pony! A beautiful little Shetland pony. It was her little grandson's, and they have kept it since he died, because they could not bear to part with anything he had been so fond of. Now they are going away from Bardstown for a long, long time. They have been looking around for somebody to take care of it, and they say they would rather trust it to you than any one they know. You can have it to pet and love and use just as long as you want it."

"Oh, it's too good to be true!" cried Todd, giving his mother a hug of frantic joy before he rushed off to the stable. There she found him a little later with his arms around the pony's neck, saying over and over: "Oh, you dear, beautiful old thing! You're better than a thousand wheels!"

"It's all because of your living up to your motto, sonny boy," she said, as she held out a lump of sugar for the pretty creature to nibble. "It was your 'good name' that brought you into Mrs. Parker's 'loving favour.'"

Abbot Morgan's disappointment was not tempered by any such great happiness as came to little Todd, but it was a proud moment when he showed his uncle his bank-book, and heard his hearty praise. Judge Parker and the grocer were there also at the time.

"I came to tell you," said the grocer, "that there is a man in my store who has a first-class wheel that he wants to sell cheap. You have earned more than enough to pay the price he asks for it, so you see your summer's work has not been in vain. And I want to say that any time you want to put that 'hand of the diligent' into my business. I'll make a place for you."

There was a gratified smile on Ab's face as he thanked him. "I'll go right down now and buy that wheel," he exclaimed.

"Well," said the judge, as he took his departure, "every one of those texts worked out just as true as preaching, and brought its own reward, but I rather think Luke's is the best one to tie to."

As he turned the corner, he met Chicky himself, who was coming to find him on the new bicycle that had just been sent to him.

"Oh, Judge Parker!" he cried, jumping off the wheel, cap in hand. "I was just coming to thank you, but," he stammered, "I--I--don't know where to begin. I'm tickled nearly to death. It's a beauty, sure!"

He looked down, growing red in the face, as he dug his toe in the gravel. Then he said, bashfully: "You've more than put me on a wheel, Judge Parker. I can't help feeling that you've started me on the right track for life, too. I'm glad you had that put on it."

His stubby fingers rested caressingly on the little silver plate between the handle-bars, on which was engraved the motto that had come to mean so much: "_He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much._"

THE END.

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