"I hope you are. I think Kit was pretty plucky to take the black eyes and the grumbling. It was a good job for her when Den went over to the Bowman House for hostler. So, of course, it has been shut up a year and a half. You know, two blocks down below, Keppler's door stands open for everybody, and so many of the mill-hands pass that way. It is so easy to run in and get a glass, and the men who bring their lunches go down for a mug of ale. It is a terrible temptation, and I wonder if they are not more easily tempted on an empty stomach? Well, I've been considering for some days if we could not start a coffee-house there,--set Kit up in business. I'm not going to fling a temperance-pledge right in every man's face,--for that makes them spiteful. I do not even want to exhort. But if we put it there,--right in their way,--and there was a nice fire in the evening, and maybe a book or two"-- "Splendid, Jack! There's no such thing in Yerbury. Let's get about it right away!" and Sylvie sprang up, as if she would start at once. They all laughed. "There must be a little planning first. Mrs. Connelly is a bright, good-hearted creature, and can make good coffee; and Rose and Kathleen would make nice little maids. She stopped me to-night to inquire if there was any chance of their being taken in the mill. There must be some diversity of employment, or presently we shall all be doing the one thing again,"--and Jack smiled humorously. "Dennis gets low wages, Bernard is in the mill, and there are two younger boys. She takes in gentlemen's laundering, as you know. She was wishing she could rent out the store, but no one wants it. Now, if it could be altered into an attractive coffee-room, kept neat and bright, and--you will laugh at me, no doubt--but given a kind of style,--the cups clean and shining, the spoons decent, and some nice bread and butter for noon lunches. All this at a moderate price. The men pay five cents for their pint of ale, and it is often shared by two: they must not give more than three cents for their cup of coffee." "I suppose you mean that we are to plan it all out for her," said Sylvie, and she looked across at Miss Morgan. "It will not do to buy a pound of sugar and a pound of coffee at a time," said Jane concisely. "Then I will be the capitalist," promised Sylvie. "Exactly. Kit had better do this on some money that she must give an account of, and it will make her more careful. She owns a cow, so there is the milk. I should like this started quietly, not with a great blare of opposition to the dram-shops." "Well, what must we do first?" asked Sylvie. "I wish you and Jane would go down and call on her, and suggest the business. See how she takes it, and look around at the capabilities of the place. I will see to the fitting-up."