is refuge behind the counter.

"Squaw-man"--the term was as new to him as "Gentle Annie."

As Miss Eyester had opined, Miss Macpherson was taking her tonic, or
about to.

"I've come to make a suggestion, Auntie," Wallie began, with a little
diffidence.

"What is it?" Miss Macpherson was shaking the bottle.

"Let's not go South this winter."

"Where then?" She smiled indulgently as she measured out the medicine.

"Why not California or Arizona?" he suggested.

"I don't believe this tonic helps me a particle." She made a wry face as
she swallowed it.

"That's it," he declared, eagerly. "You need a change--we both do."

"I'm too set in my ways to enjoy new experiences, and I don't like
strangers. We might catch contagious diseases, and there is no place
where we could be so comfortable as in Florida. No," she shook her head
kindly but firmly, "we will go South as usual."

"Oh--_sugar!_" The vehemence with which Wallie uttered the expletive
showed the extent of his disappointment.

"Wallie! I'm surprised at you!" She regarded him with annoyance.

"I'm tired of going to the same places year after year, doing the same
thing, seeing the same old fossils!"

"Wallie, you are speaking of my friends and yours," she reminded him.

"They're all right, but I like to make new ones. I don't want to go,
Aunt Mary."

She said significantly:

"Don't you think you are a little ungrateful--in the circumstances?"

It was the first time she had ever reminded him of his dependency.

"If you mean I am an ingrate, that is an unpleasant word, Aunt Mary."

She shrugged her shoulder.

"Place your own interpretation upon it, Wallace."

"Perhaps you think I am not capable of earning my own living?"

"I have not _said_ so."

"But you mean it!" he cried, hotly.

Miss Macpherson was nearly as amazed as Wallie to hear herself saying:

"Possibly you had better try it."

She had taken two cups of strong coffee that morning and her nerves were
over-stimulated, and perhaps with the intuition of a jealous woman she
half suspected that "the girl from Wyoming" had something to do with his
restlessness and desire to go West. The time she most dreaded was the
day when she would have to share her nephew with another woman.

Wallie's eyes were blazing when he answered:

"I shall! I shall never be beholden to you for another penny. When I
wanted to do something for myself you wouldn't let me. You're not fair,
Aunt Mary!"

Pale a