mbarded from giant airplanes? There's something amiss, I can see
from your way of bursting in on me."

"Oh! you know what I've been bothering my head over lately, Hugh,"
snapped the panting Thad. "Of course it's that hobo!"

"Meaning Matilda's now quiet and respected brother Lu, eh?" the other
chuckled. "Well, what's he been doing now---cut stick, and lit out,
as we hoped would be the case, finding life in and around a sleepy
town like Scranton too dull and commonplace to please the fastidious
notions of such a wonderful world traveler?"

"What! that leech clear out, and free his poor sister from the load
he's gone and fastened on her? Well, it's just the contrary; he can't
be shaken off, try as you will. Why, Hugh, even my respected Ma and
two of her friends couldn't do the first thing toward getting Matilda
to say she'd chase him off."

"Oh! that's the way the land lies, is it, Thad? Then some of the good
ladies of Scranton have been over trying to convince Matilda that
blood isn't thicker than water, and that she is under no sort of
obligation to give her wanderer of a brother a shelter, either
temporary or permanent, under her little roof."

"I hurried so after the show was over, Hugh, that I'm out of breath;
but I'm getting the same back now, and can soon tell you all about it.
In one way, it was as good as a circus, though it did make me grit
my teeth to see how that miserable sinner acted. Oh! I just wished
for a chance to give him a good kick or two. Why, honest, Hugh, I
believe I could willingly assist in tarring and feathering a scamp
like Brother Lu, who can settle down on his poor relative, and expect
to be waited on and fed and treated like an invalid the rest of his
life, while all the time he's as strong as anything, and as sleek
as a well-fed rat!" Hugh laughed outright at the comparison.

"Go to it, then, Thad, and relieve my curiosity. You've got me so
worked up by now that I'll surely burst if you don't spin the whole
story in a hurry."

"Well, it's this way," began the other, as he fanned his heated face
with a paper be picked up from Hugh's table. "I happened to know
that Ma and a couple of the other ladies who have been so kind to
Matilda during the last year had decided it was a duty they owed her
to pay her a visit, take a look for themselves at this Brother Lu,
to decide if he was really an object of pity, or a big fraud; and
also advise Mrs. Hosmer that she ought to give him h