school with
Carl next winter and to Yale the year after, and he was willing and so
was Grandfather; it seemed all settled. I knew they would be back in
June, certainly Mamma and Alice, so we could spend the summer
together. Then I thought, of course, they would be settled somewhere
where I could go for my holidays, but now all my plans are spoiled:
Papa has to go to the Pacific coast."

If his father had been sent to Siberia, Ikey's tone could not have
been more tragic. Mrs. Howard could hardly help smiling.

"I don't quite understand yet," she said. "Does that mean that you
will still be separated from your father and mother? or--"

"That is what makes me feel so mean," he burst out. "Of course I want
to be with them, and yet I can't bear to go to California, and that is
what I must do. Give up going with Carl, and go to some horrid old
university out there. They seem to think I shall like it. Mamma is
pleased because she used to live in San Francisco, and Grandfather
thinks he will go out too. There is no help for it."

"Then you will have to make the best of it, will you not? It is
perfectly natural to feel as you do, after setting your heart on the
other plan, and I am sure it does not mean any lack of affection for
your father and mother."

"I am glad you think it doesn't," he said, in a relieved tone, for he
had been torturing himself with the thought that he was a most
unnatural son.

"I hate to think of going so far away and never seeing any of you
again, when you have been so good to me." His voice faltered.

"I should feel very badly if you could leave us without caring, after
all our good times together. Carl will be dreadfully disappointed,
but as for not meeting again, California is not so far away as that,
and it is not likely your father will be there for the rest of his
life." She spoke with great cheerfulness, not daring to be too
sympathetic.

"I'll try not to hate it so," Ikey said, bracing up a little.

Mrs. Howard insisted on taking him home to dinner, and when Carl came
in he found him holding a skein of wool for Bess while Louise read
aloud, and if not quite his usual gay self he was at least more
cheerful than he had been for days.

The storm which arose when his friends heard of the change in his
plans was most comforting. Carl declared he didn't half care about
going to college himself if Ikey couldn't go, and Bess remarked
sorrowfully that everything would be different next winte