Frank hesitated. He had the natural shyness of his age and he felt awkward about visiting the Robinsons in their new home, for he knew they were now in reduced circumstances and might not wish their former friends to see them in their present plight. But Callie's words reassured him. "All right. I'll go. We can't stay long, though." "We can't. I must be back in time for supper. We'll just drop in on them so they'll know we haven't forgotten all about them." "I thought you were going over to see them to-night?" "I was, but I've changed my mind. I want you to come with me now." Frank hailed a passing street car bound for the section of the city in which the Robinsons lived and they got on board. It was a long ride and the streets became poorer and meaner as they neared the outskirts of Bayport. "It's an outrage, that's what it is!" declared Callie abruptly. "Mrs. Robinson and the girls were always accustomed to having everything so nice! And now they have to live away out here! Oh, I hope your father catches the man that committed that robbery!" Her eyes flashed and for a moment she looked so fierce that Frank laughed. "I suppose you'd like to be the judge and jury at his trial, eh?" he chuckled. "I'd give him a hundred years in jail!" When at length they came to the street to which the Robinsons had moved they found that it was an even poorer thoroughfare than they had expected. There were squalid shacks and tumbledown houses on either side of the narrow street, and ragged children were playing in the roadway. At the far end of the street they came to a small, unpainted cottage that somehow contrived to look neat in spite of the surroundings. The picket fence had been repaired and the yard had been cleaned up. "This is where they live," said Frank. "It's the neatest place on the whole street." Paula answered their knock. Her face lighted up with pleasure when she saw who the callers were. "Frank and Callie!" exclaimed the girl. "You've come to see us! Come in. We're dying of loneliness. There hasn't been a soul out this way since we moved." Callie flashed Frank a look of triumph, and whispered: "There, now! Didn't I tell you they'd be glad?" as they went into the house. They were greeted with kindly dignity by Mrs. Robinson and with girlish good humor by Tessie. Mrs. Robinson received them with the same self-possession she would have shown had they been back at Tower Mansion, and Frank wondered at himself for thinking that these good people might be ashamed to meet their old friends in this new and humbler home. "We can't stay long," explained Callie. "But Frank and I just thought we'd run out to see how you all are." "We're all well--that's one mercy to be thankful for," answered Mrs. Robinson. "Perry is working. I suppose you knew that." "And Mr. Robinson?" inquired Frank. She shook her head.