The relief Janice felt is not to be easily shown. To be positive, after these hours of uncertainty--and after the long weeks of worriment that had gone before--that dear Daddy was really alive and well, seemed too good to be true. "Oh, do you suppose it _can_ be so?" she cried, again and again, clinging to Nelson Haley's arm. "Of course it is! Pluck up your courage, Janice," he assured her, while Marty sniveled: "Aw, say, Janice! Doncher give way, now. Uncle Brocky is all right an' it would be dead foolish ter cry over it, when you kep' up your pluck so, before." "Well! to please you both!" choked Janice, trying to swallow the sobs. "But--but----Come on! let's go home. Just think how worried Aunt 'Mira will be." So they shook hands with the telegraph operator and Janice thanked him heartily. There were several other friendly folk of the neighborhood in the waiting-room when the three friends came out of the office, and the happy girl thanked them, too, for their sympathy. It was quite dark when they got out into the cold again. The wind had shifted a point or two since morning, but it was still in their favor. Although the sun had set, the way up the lake was clearly defined. The stars began to twinkle, and after the _Fly-by-Night_ was gotten under way the course seemed plain enough before them. Now Janice enjoyed the sail. She was no longer afraid, and her heart beat happily. The ice boat made good its name on the trip to Poketown, and Nelson Haley brought the craft to land beside the steamboat dock in season for a late supper. There was a crowd down at the lake's edge to see them come in. News of their trip to the Landing, and the reason for it, had been well circulated about town; and when Marty shouted to some of his boy friends that "Uncle Brocky was found--and he warn't dead, neither!" the crowd started to cheer. The cheers were for Janice--and she realized it. The folks were glad of her father's safety because they loved her. "People are so kind to me--they are so kind to me!" she cried again, and then she _did_ burst into tears, much to Marty's disgust. CHAPTER XXI A STIR OF NEW LIFE IN POKETOWN After that strange Christmas Day Janice saw a good deal more of Nelson Haley than she had before. The teacher was several years her senior, of course; but he seemed to find more than a little pleasure in her society. On Janice's side, she often told herself that Nelson was a real nice young man--but he could be so much more attractive, if he would! When the girl sometimes timidly took him to task for his plain lack of interest in the school he taught, he only laughed lightly.