getting his letters because
no reply came. As soon as he was strong enough he tried to escape, but
was caught and brought back; a month later he and a comrade made
another attempt and succeeded in reaching Holland.

"Jem can't come home right away. He isn't quite so well as his cable
said, for his wound has not healed properly and he has to go into a
hospital in England for further treatment. But he says he will be all
right eventually, and we know he is safe and will be back home
sometime, and oh, the difference it makes in everything!

"I had a letter from Jim Anderson today, too. He has married an English
girl, got his discharge, and is coming right home to Canada with his
bride. I don't know whether to be glad or sorry. It will depend on what
kind of a woman she is. I had a second letter also of a somewhat
mysterious tenor. It is from a Charlottetown lawyer, asking me to go in
to see him at my earliest convenience in regard to a certain matter
connected with the estate of the 'late Mrs. Matilda Pitman.'

"I read a notice of Mrs. Pitman's death--from heart failure--in the
Enterprise a few weeks ago. I wonder if this summons has anything to do
with Jims."

5th October 1918

"I went into town this morning and had an interview with Mrs. Pitman's
lawyer--a little thin, wispy man, who spoke of his late client with
such a profound respect that it is evident that he as was much under
her thumb as Robert and Amelia were. He drew up a new will for her a
short time before her death. She was worth thirty thousand dollars,
the bulk of which was left to Amelia Chapley. But she left five
thousand to me in trust for Jims. The interest is to be used as I
see fit for his education, and the principal is to be paid over to
him on his twentieth birthday. Certainly Jims was born lucky. I saved
him from slow extinction at the hands of Mrs. Conover--Mary Vance saved
him from death by diptheritic croup--his star saved him when he fell
off the train. And he tumbled not only into a clump of bracken, but
right into this nice little legacy.

"Evidently, as Mrs. Matilda Pitman said, and as I have always believed,
he is no common child and he has no common destiny in store for him.

"At all events he is provided for, and in such a fashion that Jim
Anderson can't squander his inheritance if he wanted to. Now, if the
new English stepmother is only a good sort I shall feel quite easy
about the future of my war-baby.

"I wonder what Rober