l over! Another man,
the common run of man, would have been satisfied to build her a house
out of wood and lucky to get that, but no, nothin' would do him
but pearls, and if they'd have been di'monds he'd have been better
satisfied. Well. . . . Where was I? . . . Oh yes! When General Rolleson
came there and says to his daughter, 'Helen, you come home along of
me,' and she says, 'No, I shan't leave him,' meanin' Robert Penfold, you
understand--When she says that did Robert Penfold say, 'That's the talk!
Put that in your pipe, old man, and smoke it?' No, SIR, he didn't! He
says, 'Helen, you go straight home along with your pa and work like fury
till you find out who forged that note and laid it onto me. You find
that out,' he says, 'and then you can come fetch me and not afore.'
That's the kind of man HE was! And they sailed off and left him behind."

Albert shook his head. He had heard only about half of the housekeeper's
story. "Pretty rough on him, I should say," he commented, absently.

"I GUESS 'twas rough on him, poor thing! But 'twas his duty and so he
done it. It was rough on Helen, havin' to go and leave him, but 'twas
rougher still on him. It's always roughest, seems to me," she added,
"on the ones that's left behind. Those that go have somethin' to take up
their minds and keep 'em from thinkin' too much. The ones that stay to
home don't have much to do EXCEPT think. I hope you don't get the notion
that I feel your part of it is easy, Al. Only a poor, crazy idiot could
read the papers these days and feel that any part of this war was EASY!
It's awful, but--but it WILL keep you too busy to think, maybe."

"I shouldn't wonder, Rachel. I understand what you mean."

"We're all goin' to miss you, Albert. This house is goin' to be a pretty
lonesome place, I cal'late. Your grandma'll miss you dreadful and so
will I, but--but I have a notion that your grandpa's goin' to miss you
more'n anybody else."

He shook his head. "Oh, not as much as all that, Rachel," he said. "He
and I have been getting on much better than we used to and we have come
to understand each other better, but he is still disappointed in me. I'm
afraid I don't count for much as a business man, you see; and, besides,
Grandfather can never quite forget that I am the son of what he calls a
Portygee play actor."

Mrs. Ellis looked at him earnestly. "He's forgettin' it better every
day, Albert," she said. "I do declare I never believed Capt'n Lote Snow