heir
duty when it's right under their nose. Just as soon as the Lord
sees fit to call him home, Cassius Cato Peabody will have to
leave some of his money to his nephew, your father, Jerry. Of
course, he may take it into his head to endow some sacred seat
of learning on the banks of the Nile, where they can study all
the stars and cats and cows they want to. For my part, I think
if he'd look a little way beyond his nose this minute, and see
his duty to the living, he'd be a good deal happier in the long
run.

"Be careful how you open up the ashes of old Amenotaph. I don't
see how he can keep the pesky things around. Makes me think of
Eliza Ann Gifford, after the Deacon died. She had his ashes in a
little bronze, brown box on the front room mantel, and fresh
flowers on 'em every day of her life. Used to give one a fearful
turn every time they called on her. So far as I'm concerned, I'm
perfectly willing to wait for Gabriel's last trump to let my
dust and ashes rest in a decent grave.

"If I were you, Kit, I'd have a heart-to-heart talk with the
Dean himself, and I know your mother will be just as relieved as
can be to hear you're homeward bound."

CHAPTER XX

HOGS AND HORACE

Kit was delighted over the whole spirit of the letter, and went directly
to the Dean with its message. He was deeply engrossed in getting up his
first notes and commentaries on the urn and statue. It had not seemed for
the past two or three weeks as if he resided any longer in Delphi at all.
Kit told Miss Daphne she was positive he was wandering through Egypt all
the time, the Egypt of five thousand years ago. And it was only the shadow
of his self that seemed to sit closeted for hours in the study.

He hardly glanced up now as she came in, but smiled and nodded when he saw
who it was, keeping on with his writing.

"Just hand me that volume on the second shelf to your right by the door.
Second volume, 'Explorations in Upper Egypt.' Look up Seti I in the
index."

Kit found the place and laid it before him, perching herself on one end of
the desk, as she always did when she wanted to attract his attention. The
little statuette of Annui smiled grotesquely down upon her from its
pedestal. The urn stood in a handy place of honor upon the desk itself as
the Dean had been deciphering the inscriptions upon it.

"I hate to disturb you, Uncle Cassius," Kit began