That's what my father meant by showing my friends that he appreciated
them.

But Belle Kirby's expression would make anybody with a sense of humor
laugh. Can live coals be showered on a person if nobody ever intended
it?




CHAPTER V


The desire to be popular may be one of the unworthy ambitions of a
person's heart, yet there is nothing in the world so delightful as
having it happen to you. And if having almost everybody like you, and
show it by being nice and friendly to you on all occasions, makes you
happy your own self, how much more happy you are when somebody you
love gets a slice of it all along with you!

My father is getting to be one of the beloved men of this town, like
Judge Luttrell and the Colonel. It has been going on gradually for
some time, but I was afraid to notice it for fear I was mistaken. Such
is the result of the sincere prayers of a daughter, and I certainly
was sincere in wanting this reform. And better than even his sitting
and smoking and joking in the Judge's office and walking down the
street in a friendly manner with Mr. Chadwell is the notice that Mr.
Douglass Byrd has been taking of him lately. The Idol has been to see
him twice, in the evening, and both times I have heard my father's
jolly laugh boom out in a way the nurse says will have to stop, for it