ejaculation he drew back.

"Boy, where did that money come from?" he challenged.

David sighed in a discouraged way. It seemed that, always, the showing
of this gold mean't questioning--eternal questioning.

"Surely," continued Simeon Holly, "you did not--" With the boy's frank
gaze upturned to his, the man could not finish his sentence.

Before David could answer came the voice of Perry Larson from the
kitchen doorway.

"No, sir, he didn't, Mr. Holly; an' it's all straight, I'm
thinkin'--though I'm free ter confess it does sound nutty. His dad give
it to him."

"His--father! But where--where has it been ever since?"

"In the chimney cupboard in his room, he says, sir."

Simeon Holly turned in frowning amazement.

"David, what does this mean? Why have you kept this gold in a place
like that?"

"Why, there wasn't anything else to do with it," answered the boy
perplexedly. "I hadn't any use for it, you know, and father said to
keep it till I needed it."

"'Hadn't any use for it'!" blustered Larson from the doorway. "Jiminy!
Now, ain't that jest like that boy?"

But David hurried on with his explanation.

"We never used to use them--father and I--except to buy things to eat
and wear; and down here YOU give me those, you know."

"Gorry!" interjected Perry Larson. "Do you reckon, boy, that Mr. Holly
himself was give them things he gives ter you?"

The boy turned sharply, a startled question in his eyes.

"What do you mean? Do you mean that--" His face changed suddenly. His
cheeks turned a shamed red. "Why, he did--he did have to buy them, of
course, just as father did. And I never even thought of it before!
Then, it's yours, anyway--it belongs to you," he argued, turning to
Farmer Holly, and shoving the gold nearer to his hands. "There isn't
enough, maybe--but 't will help!"

"They're ten-dollar gold pieces, sir," spoke up Larson importantly;
"an' there's a hundred an' six of them. That's jest one thousand an'
sixty dollars, as I make it."

Simeon Holly, self-controlled man that he was, almost leaped from his
chair.

"One thousand and sixty dollars!" he gasped. Then, to David: "Boy, in
Heaven's name, who are you?"

"I don't know--only David." The boy spoke wearily, with a grieved sob
in his voice. He was very tired, a good deal perplexed, and a little
angry. He wished, if no one wanted this gold, that he could take it
upstairs again to the chimney cupboard; or, if they objected to that,
that they w