Besides all this, down the middle of the street a score of men, day after day, threw up the rocky soil into long mounds, and at last the sewer pipe that was to connect with every dwelling, was laid, with all Cherry Street looking into the hole, as if it had been the dedication of a church. No more cesspools and typhoid fever for Cherry Street! It had been too near to losing Miss Billy. But Mr. Schultzsky would have made the concession for none other. The Street Improvement Club, cast at first into the depths of despair at their brave little captain's grave illness, and raised now to heights of enthusiasm by her convalescence, were everywhere! Chewing gum wrappers were voted a nuisance: Paper bags were frowned upon: Banana skins were not to be tolerated: Tomato cans were a crime! Everywhere over the street presided a new goddess,--the Goddess of Cleanliness,--while the girl who had wrought the change lay in the little green room, being slowly nursed back to life. It was after the Improvement Club, under the advice of Francis, had taken the proceeds of the lawn social from the little tin box, and invested it in young shade trees, that proudly skirted the sidewalks twenty feet apart, that Francis snapped his final picture from the head of the street. After it was developed he compared it to that other taken on the August morning. The results appeared to satisfy him. "They are an object lesson," he said, "fit to point a moral or adorn a tale," and he mailed them in a big official looking envelope to "Peter Hanson, Florist,--New York,--Prize Street Competition." It was this very day, too, that Miss Billy was placed in an easy chair, and taken to the window for the first time since her illness. "Oh, it's such a green world, motherie mine; such a beautiful, sunny, green world, that it hurts my eyes. And--why--but everything wasn't all green like that when I went to bed. What can have happened!" "That is enough for to-day," said the nurse authoritatively, and Miss Billy was put back to bed. But she had caught a glimpse of Mr. Schultzsky's house, and it was painted white!--Of the little Bohemian maid swinging placidly to and fro in the rocking chair on an immaculate little white porch!--Of a stretch of restful green grass, where before had been weeds!--and right in the middle of the front yard had bloomed a huge tub of scarlet geraniums! ("She will like to see that," Francis had said,--and through the long beautiful fall which stretched into December, he had placed a covering over the flowers every night to protect them from possible frosts.) Miss Billy had seen, and two hectic spots of excitement burned on her cheeks. "Cherry Street is remodelled, inside and out," said Mrs. Lee gently. "Francis has made Mr. Schultzsky see the expense of it in the light of a sound business proposition, and the rest of it has been done by the people themselves, for love of you. But there, little daughter,--it's nothing to cry about!"