* * * * *
Dirk Colson's brain was in a whirl. He had an important question to
settle. In his pocket were two blue tickets, promising to admit him to
the largest and finest hall in the city to hear the great temperance
orator. Dirk knew very little about orators, but he had heard of John B.
Gough, and everything he had heard made him wish to have a glimpse of
him. You will remember that Dirk was an imitator. He had heard that Mr.
Gough was also, and down deep in his heart the boy had an ambition to
hear the man. Now was his unexpected opportunity. Of course, he was
going, but the perplexing thing was, what to do with that other ticket.
There was Mart? Oh, yes, to be sure, he had not forgotten her; but what
a strange thing it would be to take her to a lecture! He had never taken
her anywhere in his life. She had nothing to wear, though he remembered
at that moment that the mother had, by earnest effort, succeeded in
getting her shawl out of pawn.
There was one incentive for taking her; it would please Mrs. Roberts.
Dirk studied the thing for some time, to try to discover why she should
care, and had finally given up the problem as too great for him. Yet he
was sure she cared; there had been a wistful light in her eyes when she
said, "I thought possibly you might like to take that sister with the
golden hair," that he saw and interpreted.
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