Each looked as if there was more he would have liked
to say but found the saying hard. Then the engine bell rang and the
hands fell apart. The little group on the station platform watched
the train disappear. Mrs. Snow and Rachel wiped their eyes with their
handkerchiefs. Captain Zelotes gently patted his wife's shoulder.

"The team's waitin', Mother," he said. "Labe'll drive you and Rachel
home."

"But--but ain't you comin', too, Zelotes?" faltered Olive. Her husband
shook his head.

"Not now, Mother," he answered. "Got to go back to the office."

He stood for an instant looking at the faint smear of smoke above the
curve in the track. Then, without another word, he strode off in the
direction of Z. Snow and Co.'s buildings. Issachar Price sniffed.

"Crimus," he whispered to Laban, as the latter passed him on the way to
where Jessamine, the Snow horse, was tied, "the old man takes it cool,
don't he! I kind of imagined he'd be sort of shook up by Al's goin' off
to war, but he don't seem to feel it a mite."

Keeler looked at him in wonder. Then he drew a long breath.

"Is," he said, slowly, "it is a mighty good thing for the Seven Wise Men
of Greece that they ain't alive now."

It was Issachar's turn to stare. "Eh?" he queried. "The Seven Wise Men
of Which? Good thing for 'em they ain't alive? What kind of talk's that?
Why is it a good thing?"

Laban spoke over his shoulder. "Because," he drawled, "if they was alive
now they'd be so jealous of you they'd commit suicide. Yes, they would.
. . . Yes, yes."

With which enigmatical remark he left Mr. Price and turned his attention
to the tethered Jessamine.

And then began a new period, a new life at the Snow place and in the
office of Z. Snow and Co. Or, rather, life in the old house and at the
lumber and hardware office slumped back into the groove in which it had
run before the opera singer's son was summoned from the New York school
to the home and into the lives of his grandparents. Three people instead
of four sat down at the breakfast table and at dinner and at supper.
Captain Zelotes walked alone to and from the office. Olive Snow no
longer baked and iced large chocolate layer cakes because a certain
inmate of her household was so fond of them. Rachel Ellis discussed
Foul Play and Robert Penfold with no one. The house was emptier, more
old-fashioned and behind the times, more lonely--surprisingly empty and
behind the times and lonely.

The daily mails b