Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed. [Illustration: JANET AND THE BROKER. Frontispiece.] JANET'S BOYS. BY ANNETTE LYSTER, AUTHOR OF "A LEAL LIGHT HEART," "NORTH WIND AND SUNSHINE," "THE PIANO IN THE ATTIC," "MIDSHIPMAN ARCHIE," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY W. S. STACEY. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL LITERATURE COMMITTEE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET. E.C. BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET. NEW YORK: E. S. GORHAM. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. II. THE ROAD TO RUIN. III. IN LIVERPOOL. IV. KELMERSDALE. V. ALL THE WAY TO GATTIGO. VI. MRS. RAYBURN'S CAP. VII. THE BOYS' ESCAPE. VIII. THE BABES IN THE WOOD. IX. IN THE NEW HOME. X. FRANK'S MESSAGE TO "MUDDIE." XI. MRS. RAYBURN'S LETTER. XII. FRANK'S MESSAGE REACHES "MUDDIE." XIII. "AS WE FORGIVE." [Illustration] JANET'S BOYS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. "FRED," said Mr. Rayburn to his only son, a well-grown handsome lad of seventeen or thereabouts, "don't you think we should be much more comfortable if we had a—if this house had a mistress?" The speaker was a man of about sixty, but looked so fresh and hearty that one might easily have concluded him to be much younger. The room in which he and his son were sitting was a long, low one, well lighted by three bay windows all on the same side; and though not a pretty room, it used at one time to look homelike and comfortable. The room was the same, and the furniture was the same, but the comfort and the homelike look had vanished. Ten years before the day on which Mr. Rayburn made this remark to his son, comfort had departed on the death of Mrs. Rayburn, his wife and Fred's mother.