g the men how I wanted my vats to go, and I caught my fool self
standing there saying to my fool self, 'It's funny I don't hear how he
feels about it from SOMEbody.' I was saying it aloud, almost--and it IS
funny I don't hear anything!"

"Well, you see what it means, don't you, Virgil? It only means he hasn't
said anything to anybody about it. Don't you think you're getting kind
of morbid over it?"

"Maybe, maybe," he muttered.

"Why, yes," she said, briskly. "You don't realize what a little bit of
a thing all this is to him. It's been a long, long while since the
last time you even mentioned glue to him, and he's probably forgotten
everything about it."

"You're off your base; it isn't like him to forget things," Adams
returned, peevishly. "He may seem to forget 'em, but he don't."

"But he's not thinking about this, or you'd have heard from him before
now."

Her husband shook his head. "Ah, that's just it!" he said. "Why HAVEN'T
I heard from him?"

"It's all your morbidness, Virgil. Look at Walter: if Mr. Lamb held this
up against you, would he still let Walter stay there? Wouldn't he have
discharged Walter if he felt angry with you?"

"That dang boy!" Adams said. "If he WANTED to come with me now, I
wouldn't hardly let him, What do you suppose makes him so bull-headed?"

"But hasn't he a right to choose for himself?" she asked. "I suppose
he feels he ought to stick to what he thinks is sure pay. As soon as he
sees that you're going to succeed with the glue-works he'll want to be
with you quick enough."

"Well, he better get a little sense in his head," Adams returned,
crossly. "He wanted me to pay him a three-hundred-dollar bonus in
advance, when anybody with a grain of common sense knows I need every
penny I can lay my hands on!"

"Never mind," she said. "He'll come around later and be glad of the
chance."

"He'll have to beg for it then! _I_ won't ask him again."

"Oh, Walter will come out all right; you needn't worry. And don't you
see that Mr. Lamb's not discharging him means there's no hard feeling
against you, Virgil?"

"I can't make it out at all," he said, frowning. "The only thing I can
THINK it means is that J. A. Lamb is so fair-minded--and of course he
IS one of the fair-mindedest men alive I suppose that's the reason he
hasn't fired Walter. He may know," Adams concluded, morosely--"he may
know that's just another thing to make me feel all the meaner: keeping
my boy there on a salary af