The deacon had come over to see the game.  He and Hugh went home together, and the talk was mostly concerning the wonderful reformation of Nick Lang.

“I’m hoping to have Nick come to me when he leaves school,” the good old man was saying.  “He has the making of a clever blacksmith in him, and I’d dearly like to turn over my shop to him some day not far in the future; because it’s almost time the old man retired, now that he has a sunbeam coming to his house, which is going to take up much of his attention.”

So it seemed that Nick’s future was assured, if so be he cared to take up that honorable trade, by means of which the deacon had accumulated his little fortune.

As for the two former pals of Nick, Tip Slavin and Leon Disney, in due time they were convicted of the robbery of Paul Kramer’s store, and sent away to the excellent State institution, to remain there until they had reached the age of twenty-one.

There was at least a fair hope that long before that time arrived one or both of the boys would have learned a trade and decided to live a respectable life in the future; for many lads who were deemed uncontrollable at home, under the lax training they received there, have been fashioned into splendid men because of the strict discipline at the Reform School.

There is little more to add to make our story complete.

Joey and his mother were soon installed under the hospitable roof of the deacon, where they found themselves the objects of love and devotion.  The miseries of the past would soon be forgotten in the great happiness that had come to them.  And certain it is that no one would be a more welcome guest there than Hugh Morgan, because it was partly through his efforts that this joyous event had been made possible.

Since Scranton High had taken such a leading part in the outdoor sports so beloved by all wide-awake boys, it could be set down as certain that the fellows in Allandale and Belleville would not be content to let them rest upon their well-earned laurels, but would strive with might and main to excel them on the diamond, the cinder-path, the football gridiron, or some other field of athletic endeavor.

That many fiercely contested games would result was a foregone conclusion; and it is to be hoped that we shall have the privilege of meeting the readers of this volume in the pages of subsequent books, where some of those exciting happenings may be set down in an interesting manner.

THE END