ould have melted a heart of ice, but that old man
hadn't any heart to melt, for he got that letter and read it. He hid it
away among his papers and never told a soul. A few months ago he died.
When his elder son went to settle his business, he found the letter
almost the first thing. He dropped everything, and came, with his wife,
to hunt that baby, because he always had loved his brother dearly, and
wanted him back. He had hunted for him all he dared all these years, but
when he got here you were gone--I mean the baby was gone, and I had to
tell you, Freckles, for you see, it might have happened to you like that
just as easy as to that other lost boy."

Freckles reached up and turned the Angel's face until he compelled her
eyes to meet his.

"Angel," he asked quietly, "why don't you look at me when you are
telling about that lost boy?"

"I--I didn't know I wasn't," faltered the Angel.

"It seems to me," said Freckles, his breath beginning to come in sharp
wheezes, "that you got us rather mixed, and it ain't like you to be
mixing things till one can't be knowing. If they were telling you so
much, did they say which hand was for being off that lost boy?"

The Angel's eyes escaped again.

"It--it was the same as yours," she ventured, barely breathing in her
fear.

Still Freckles lay rigid and whiter than the coverlet.

"Would that boy be as old as me?" he asked.

"Yes," said the Angel faintly.

"Angel," said Freckles at last, catching her wrist, "are you trying to
tell me that there is somebody hunting a boy that you're thinking might
be me? Are you belavin' you've found me relations?"

Then the Angel's eyes came home. The time had come. She pinioned
Freckles' arms to his sides and bent above him.

"How strong are you, dear heart?" she breathed. "How brave are you? Can
you bear it? Dare I tell you that?"

"No!" gasped Freckles. "Not if you're sure! I can't bear it! I'll die if
you do!"

The day had been one unremitting strain with the Angel. Nerve tension
was drawn to the finest thread. It snapped suddenly.

"Die!" she flamed. "Die, if I tell you that! You said this morning that
you would die if you DIDN'T know your name, and if your people were
honorable. Now I've gone and found you a name that stands for ages of
honor, a mother who loved you enough to go into the fire and die for
you, and the nicest kind of relatives, and you turn round and say you'll
die over that! YOU JUST TRY DYING AND YOU'LL GET A