You can imagine how busy the boys were all that week. They asked
questions by the thousands of all their friends. They prowled
about barns and henneries and rabbit hutches until the people in
the village woke up to the idea that the boys of Hill-top school
were taking a lively interest in the welfare of all animals.

"Give my horses an extra ration of oats and rub them down well,
Jacob," said Banker Patterson, with a twinkle in his eye. "I
wouldn't like to be reported for cruelty to animals, and I notice
that young Tommy Dane and that yellow-headed Norton are eying my
turnout very curiously." Jacob chuckled over the joke, for he well
knew that the banker's horses were the best attended to in the
village.

"They say," said Jacob, "that Master Sunshine, as they call that
Norton boy, is at the bottom of the whole business;" and thereupon
he told the story to his employer of how the brave little fellow
had protected Billy Butler.

"A fine boy that and a promising one," said Mr. Patterson
cordially; "but surely," he added, with a slight frown, "he did
not tell you of it himself?"

"Not he," laughed Jacob; "but Tommy Dane has been full of it ever
since; and Almira Jane, the help over at the cottage, has told me
too. I guess it is owing to her good sense as much as anything
else that he's turned out so well."

And perhaps it was as well that Jacob did not see the merry
twinkle in the banker's eye at his words. It was surprising how