Already, the doctor urged, she was fit to go into the school for the deaf and dumb in which such wonderful miracles were achieved for the afflicted. The good surgeon, learning from Miss 'Rill the circumstances of the child's being brought to him, had subscribed two hundred dollars toward Lottie's tuition and board in the school for the deaf and dumb.
It was joyful news for both Hopewell and Janice. That evening the storekeeper got out his violin and played his old tunes over and over--especially "Silver Threads Among the Gold."
"But it sounds more like a hymn of praise to-night," Nelson Haley whispered in Janice's ear, as they sat on the front porch of the little shop and listened to the violin.
A week later the little spinster came home. Her visit in Boston seemed to have done her a world of good. She brought a great trunk packed full of things to wear, or goods to be made up into pretty dresses and the like.
"I declare for't!" ejaculated her mother. "Looks like you had been buyin' your trossoo--an' old maid like you, too!"
But Miss 'Rill was unruffled, and parried her mother's suspicion.
When the lake boat, the _Constance Colfax_, began to run on her summer schedule after Decoration Day, many more summer tourists than usual got off the boat at Poketown to look about. The dock was so neat, and the surroundings of the landing so attractive, that these visitors were led to go further up into the town.
There was the pleasant, rambling, old Lake View Inn, freshened with paint that spring, and with a green grass plot before it, and wide, screened verandas.
"Why, it's only its name that is against it!" cried the wondering tourists. "It's not _poky_ at all."
These remarks, repeated as they were, made the merchants of the village stop and think. Ere this a board of trade had been formed, and the welfare of the town was eagerly discussed at the meetings of the board. Mr. Massey, the druggist, who was active, of course, got another idea from Janice.
He began to delve into the past history of Poketown. He learned how and when it had been settled--and by whom. People had mostly forgotten (if they ever had known) the true history of the town.
A pioneer named Cyrus Polk had first built his cabin on the heights overlooking this little bay. He had been the first smith in this region, too, and gradually around "Polk's Smithy" had been reared the nucleus of the present town.