and more, but if she's alive she'd
come in for a share. She's a woman grown by this time. Her mother died
when she was a baby. I married the woman I hired to take care of her and
the house--like a fool. When we parted, she took the kid with her. She
did think a lot of her, I'll say that much for her, and that's all I can
say in her favor. I drifted around and lost track of 'em. Old woman,
she married again, and I heard that didn't pan out, neither. Anyway, she
kept the girl, and gave her the care and schooling that I couldn't give.
I was a drifter.

"Well, she can bust the will if I leave her out, yuh see. And if the old
woman gets a finger in the pie, it'll be busted, all right. I can write
her down for a hundred dollars perviding she don't contest. That'll fix
it. And the rest goes to the kid here. But I want him to have the use of
my name, understand. Something-or-other Markham Moore ought to suit all
hands well enough."

Bud, holding Lovin Child on his knees, frowned a little at first. But
when he looked at Cash, and caught the wistfulness in his eyes, he
surrendered warm-heartedly.

"A couple of old he-hens like us--we need a chick to look after," he
said whimsically. "I guess Markham Moore ought to be good enough for
most any kid. And if it ain't, by gosh, we'll make it good enough! If
I ain't been all I should be, there's no law against straightening up.
Markham Moore goes as it lays--hey, Lovins?" But Lovin Child had gone to
sleep over his foster fathers' disposal of his future. His little yellow
head was wabbling on his limp neck, and Bud cradled him in his arms and
held him so.

"Yeah. But what are we going to call him?" Methodical Cash wanted the
whole matter settled at one conference, it seemed.

"Call him? Why, what've we been calling him, the last two months?"

"That," Cash retorted, "depended on what devilment he was into when we
called!"

"You said it all, that time. I guess, come to think of it--tell you
what, Cash, let's call him what the kid calls himself. That's fair
enough. He's got some say in the matter, and if he's satisfied with
Lovin, we oughta be. Lovin Markam Moore ain't half bad. Then if he wants
to change it when he grows up, he can."

"Yeah. I guess that's as good as anything. I'd hate to see him named
Cassius. Well, now's as good a time as any to make them wills, Bud. We
oughta have a couple of witnesses, but we can act for each other, and I
guess it'll pass. You lay the kid dow