Miss Ailie compelled her little servant, Gavinia, to read the _Mentor_, and stood over her while she did it; the phrase, "this week's," meant this week's _Mentor_.

Yet the secret must be told: only one copy of the paper came to Thrums weekly; it was subscribed for by the whole reading public between them, and by Miss Ailie's influence Tommy had become the boy who carried it from house to house.
This brought him a penny a week, but so heavy were his incidental expenses that he could have saved little for the Muckley had not another organization given him a better chance.

It was a society, newly started, for helping the deserving poor; they had to subscribe not less than a penny weekly to it, and at the end of the year each subscriber was to be given fuel, etc., to the value of double what he or she had put in.

"The three Ps" was a nickname given to the society by Dr.McQueen, because it claimed to distribute "Peats and Potatoes with Propriety," but he was one of its heartiest supporters nevertheless.

The history of this society in the first months of its existence not only shows how Tommy became a moneyed man, but gives a glimpse into the character of those it benefited.
Miss Ailie was treasurer, and the pennies were to be brought to her on Monday evenings between the hours of seven and eight.