Every cloud was gone from the sky, swept away to return no more. Ben Stone, whose appearance in Oakdale had been so unfavorable, whose days there had been so filled with trouble and strife, found himself the hero of the village and the coveted friend of those lads who had once regarded him with doubt and aversion. When he and Jerry and Pilot departed, with Henry Bailey, who took the boys away until such time as Asher Rand’s affairs should be definitely settled and a guardian appointed for them, nearly every lad in the village, together with a number of the girls and not a few of the older citizens, accompanied them to the railway station.