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Show by. and the four met in Uncle John's ollice and watched with glistening eyes ; as he counted nut the money due them- ; nine shining gold pieces, all their own the fruit of llieir Kilienl. faithful labor . "Tina means moonlight sails on the j Sound, giils. think nf it.' t-aid Margaret, patting the gold with loving touches. , "and clam bakes and sea bathing and no ' matches." j "Give tt to Belle. Her purse is the . emptiest and largest," laughed Elsie. ' "and we'll act ns special police on th , way home. " Mr. (Jrashaw spoke to them at that in- : stunt, and they turned to answer hi? question. j "There, I've left my penknife ou the i work bench," said Belle. "I'll just slip i up and get it." and she ran lightly hack 1 to the now empty room. A hasty search on the bench, the floor, . in every corner failed to reveal the miss- , ing knife, and Belle was forced to give up the search. She walked slowly back to the door, looking on either side as she went. Upon reaching it, she found to her amazement that it was locked. The janitor had come in and. not seeing her as she stooped under the work benches, had locked the door and gone away for the night, and here she must stay, pos-i pos-i tsihly until Monday morning, who could I tell. The three girls waited until tired for Belle's return, and then, concluding she had gone home without them, sauntered slowly back to Mrs, Blake's, rejoicing that it was for the last time. Belle, left alone in the gathering'dark- ! nesB, paced the floor of her prison with 1 impatient steps. Here was the adven-I adven-I ture Elsie had hoped would come be- 1 1 fore they left, and Belle defiantly wished she was here to enjoy it. Surely the girls would become anxious about her and come to seek her, especially espe-cially as she had the precious money in her pocket. At that remembrance her heart gave a faint throb of fear. What if something should happen to that! She walked to the window and peered down into the narrow court below, but not a l soul was to be seen. As she turned back a slender thread of I smoke caught her eye coming from the j window of the dipping room. She i watched, first with curiosity, then with growing alarm, as puff after pufl came j faster and faster. The sickening truth j that the factory was on fire and she was alone flashed upon herl She watched the ever increasing smoke with a fascination she could not throw off. Now the flames could be seen. Was there no help? Must Bhe die alone? And the motieyl The precious money, the girls had worked so hard for. Must that, too, be lost? Sho flew from door to door and window to window, beating them with her fists and calling aloud in her agony. At last, after what seemed an eternity, she heard the sound of voices in the streets, and cries of fire and palls for water. The room she was confined in had no windows facing tho street, and she could not venture near those on the court, as the smoke rolled in in clouds. Must she die? Life was so eweetl She must make one more effort to Bave it, and picking up a heavy wrench, with the strength of despair, broke the lock on a door leading into the next room. With a cry of joy she darted in, only to be met with such volumes of smoke that she nearly lost hope. Burying her face in her apron Bhe crawled to the window and fell more dead than alive across the sill. There on the street below was the entire en-tire village watching the flames roar and leap from story to story. Among the sea of faceB she could barely distinguish those of her friends. "Margaret!" 6he called. "Margaret, save me. Oh, won't some one try to save me?" The faint cry for help reached Margaret's Marga-ret's ears and her eyes met Belle's figure darkly outlined against the wall of the. "Save herl Save herl" she cried in agony, and all eyes were now turned toward to-ward the crouching figure, whose white face and moving lips prayed for help. The cry, "A woman in the building!" was taken up and passed from lip to lip, and a dozen brave hearts offered to scale ladders and try to rescue her. In the midst of her greatest peril Belle did not forget the gold pieces Bhe held firmly clasped in one hand, and hnstily tying them in her handkerchief she tossed it far into the air and it fell at Margaret's feet. Ladders are soon in place, stout hands are stretched to the fainting girl, and when she oens her eyes she is safe in Margaret's arms, with Elsie and Liz.ie questioning and crying ull in one breath! while the crowd gathered around to congratulate her. "To think," sobbed Lizzie, "that you should have thought of the money in ull your danger." Within a few Bhort weeks, four happy girls started on their summer holiday, and in ull that merry party it is stile to say none enjoyed it more than the four who had bo hardly earned it. Louise Thrush Brooks in Springfield Homestead. A HOLIDAY FAIRLY WON. "The question before the house is. Can it be done?" and the speaker rapped on the table with her lead pencil to attract the attention of the other three, who Bcenied disposed to wander from the subject sub-ject in hand. "What do you say, Elsie?' "If we all agree we want to do it, then It can be done." replied Elsie, with a determined de-termined nod of her head. "Good." res'ionded Margaret. ""What Bay you. Belfe?" ' "I agree with Elsie that whatever we undertake we can carry out, and I am willing to do anything, provided my blessed mother approves of it." "Splendid!" cried Margaret "Now ' Lizzie, let us hear from you." "Well," began Lizzie doubtfully, "you know I think nothing could be lovelier than to join the camping party at the beach for a whole mouth, but, first, we are poor, second, here we are stuck down in a little country village where there is no chance of being richer if one lives to bo a thousand years old; and lastly, J cannot see how we can ever make 80 if i we can't find something to make it by. Why, girls, that $80 looks like a mountain." moun-tain." "But will you consent to earn It If you can?" persisted Margaret. "Yes," assented Lizzie slowly. "Well, then, listen to my plan, and don't say a word till I've finished. Of course, 1 have consulted mother, and 1 she approves and thinks we can do it, so that encourages me to tell you. We can I get work in l'enton. easy work, that we can do without much practice; wages. I 4$5 a week. We can get a comfortable , room for $10 a month, and I am sure 1 our mother would give us enough pio-; pio-; visions to last a week and send us moie from time to time. In that way wt i three could at least save $10 a week, and at the end of two months have enough 1 to pay the fare here and back and the $80 for the trip to the beach. What do you think of my plan?" "The plan is lovely, but you haven't said what the work was?" objected Lizzie. "In my uncle's match factory in Pen-tou." Pen-tou." "Matches," cried Clare, in surprise, "Why. 1 never made a match in my life," from Belle. "What would people say?" asked Lizzie. Liz-zie. "Of course, girls, if we do not want to do it we are not compelled to, but we can earn tho money for the beach trip in that way if we will, and be more than repaid in the end. As to what people think of us, I, for one, do not care, and as to making matches, it is the easiest thing in the world, when we know how. Girls, Uncle John says we can have places in the sorting room and can begin at onco. WJiat do you say; to go, or not to go?" Lizzie looked down at her fingers and thought how disagreeable the continual smell of sulphur would be. Belle aud Elsie stared gravely at each other. Two whole months in a match factory wasn't a pleasant tiling to contemplate, but the lovely trip afterwards would more than compensate. "What do you say?" urged Margaret. "We'll do it I" chorused the others. A week later four girls, a trifle homesick, home-sick, but too proud to confess it, sat down to their first meal, picnic fashion, in their own room in good Mrs. Blake's house in Penton. Tho rooms looked very bare, but with a few home photographs , and a scarf here and there, the staring white walla lost half their bareness. The table was spread in the middle of the room and made pretty with some early spring flowers. "I did not know mother's bread was so good." said Margaret, "but 1 really must curb my appetite, or there won't be enough left for breakfast. What a blessed relief it will be to take our dinners din-ners at Mrs. Blake's table." Mr. Crashaw from his oflice window saw with a grim smile the four girls approach, ap-proach, the next morning. "It won't be ti paying business forme,'' ho said to himself, "but girls with such pluck deserve to be helped." "Here wo are, Uncle John, ready for business," announced Margaret, and her uncle, taking his hat, led the way to the factory. "We might just as well go over the whole building and give you an idea of how matches aro inadc," he said. "You see here, the timber is being cut iuto plunks or slabs tho exact thickness of a match, then with one blow from this guillotine-like machine, which, you see, works with a treadle, the cut matches fall into this box. "Then three little splints, just the length of two matches, aro fitted into this frame, and aro ready fo. the dipping, dip-ping, first, however, passing through the hands of the inspector yonder, who shakes out the loose splints and fastens the frames; the dipper next takes them, and laving tho ends of the splints on this heated surfaco for an iiiBtant to dry all moisture, deftly dips first one end und then the other into the pan of sulphur sul-phur tho thickness of cream, and then into the pan of phosphorus. When dry thev are placed in trays and carried to the room where you will work. There tho matches aro cut in two by tho little machine fastened to tho work bench and placed in the boxes ready for shipping. This is your nxmi," he said at lost, leaving leav-ing them where the hands were busj filling boxes, 4X n each, never too few nor too many, so ecurato were they. "Now, you n a ladies, don't eat, sit down on or win, on tho matches, or go too near the dipping pan, and you will live to linish your two months," and wilb this feeble attempt al a joke Uncle John -left them to make their first trial. "1 hadn't any idea matches were so slippery." said Lizzie, with a sigh, vaish trying to fill a Ihh with lingers which constantly let the matches fall to the OtKir Deftness came with practice, however, aud Undo John was forced to confess that ho had not made such a bad bargain ufter all. The four friends-counted friends-counted off the slowly passing days b) the hour, "I never want to see jam again. moaned Lizzie. "Nor codlish!" said Margaret. ! "Nor cold liaked beans!" from Belle. "Nor ginger bread!" chimed in Llsie "Won't wo enjoy our trip to the beach after all these matches?" cried Itolle, with a laugh. "I Bhall live and die an old maid rather than make another ni" but a pillow thrown at her by Margaret smothered the sentence. "If there was only a we bit of excitement excite-ment to break this monotony," said El-Bie El-Bie one morning toward the end of the two months; "seven whole weeks, and nothing to vary matches but picnicking off of oiic'b trunk.' "They, too, shall pass away," quoted Margaret, to comfort her. Slowly, but surely, the week did roll |