"Marty has been telling everybody the great and good news!" he said, staring at her. "Why! what makes you so solemn? Do you mean to say that you can't decide what kind of an auto to buy, and that is what has soured our Janice's usually sweet disposition?" "Oh, Nelson!" gasped the girl, suddenly clinging to his arm, for she really felt a weakness in her knees. "Hold on! hold on! bear up! What's the matter?" "I forgot about poor Daddy's check. Of course--that's the way out." "What's the way out?" he demanded. "Haven't you heard about poor little Lottie?" "What's happened to her?" he asked, anxiously. She told him swiftly. Then stopped. He demanded: "What's that got to do with the auto, Janice?" "Don't you see it has _everything_ to do with it, Nelson?" she returned, gravely. "Of course, I could not buy a car when Lottie needs some of my money so much. She shall start for Boston just as soon as she is well enough to go--and of course Miss 'Rill will go with her. Hopewell cannot leave the store. Lottie shall go to the specialist, Nelson." For a minute the school-teacher was silent. He looked at the girl's shining, earnest face in a way she had never noticed before. But at last he only smiled a little queerly, and said: "Why-- Well, Janice Day, there's no odor of gasoline about _that_!" CHAPTER XXIX JANICE DAY'S FIRST LOVE LETTER In a week, although little Lottie's head was still bandaged, she was driven over to Middletown with Miss 'Rill, Walky Dexter being the driver, of course, and took a train for Boston. Before the day of departure Janice Day had a good deal to contend with. It _did_ seem too bad that one could not spend one's own money without everybody trying to talk one out of it! Not every one, however! Nelson Haley never said a word to discourage the girl's generosity. But, beginning with Hopewell Drugg himself, almost everybody else had something to say against it. "I can never in this world pay you back, Miss Janice," said the storekeeper, faintly, after the girl had told him her plans fully. "Who wants you to? I am giving it to Lottie," Janice declared. "Would you refuse to let her take it from me, when it means a new life to Lottie? You can't be so cruel!" "Had you _ought_ to do it, dear Janice?" asked Miss 'Rill, herself. "It seems too much for one person to do----" "You're going to pay your own expenses, aren't you?" demanded Janice. "Why should you do _that_? Just because you love Lottie, isn't it?" "Ye-es," admitted the other, but with a little blush. "Well, let _me_ show some love for her, too." "Good Land o' Goshen!" cried old Mrs. Scattergood. "Somebody ought to take and shake you, Janice Day! I don't see what your folks can be thinking of. All that money just thrown away--for like enough the man can't help the poor little thing at all. It is wicked!"