"the town will soon be deserted."

The grey-haired man looked at her as much as to ask: "Pray, how did you
manage to overhear what I was saying?" What he did ask was:

"How does his mother feel, Mrs. Arling?"

"I'm just on my way there now," replied the lady-shopper; "give me a
can of pork-and-beans, will you, John?"

The grocer, whom almost everyone in town called by his first name,
climbed nimbly up the side of his store and fished out the desired
article. Meanwhile Mrs. Arling winked at the old man and whispered:

"He looks like a boy, Grandpa, the way he scales that shelf; but he's
past forty!"

"Aye, so he is, Mary; but you both seem like chits to me."

Grandpa Newman smiled when "Mary" had gone, then shook his head and
sighed. The grocer proceeded to wheedle more news out of the village
information bureau.

"Who's leaving us now, Dad?" he asked.

"Young Nelson; he's goin' away out here to Mt. Alban to j'in one of
them banks."

"You don't say!"

"Yes," drawled the grandsire, "it beats the Old Scratch how these
youngsters have got new-fangled idears into their heads. Now, when I
was a boy--"

But the observation Mrs. Arling was, a few minutes later, making to
Mrs. Nelson, is more to the point:

"My dear Caroline, I just dropped in to tell you how sorry and how glad
I am."

Mrs. Arling was fair, round and vivacious. The woman to whom she
talked was dark and slender, but also vivacious. The latter smiled.

"It is lonesome, Mary; but you know we can't keep them home forever."

"No, indeed," agreed Mrs. Arling, "that's what I tell my silly old man
when he gets to worrying about our boy, who's only twelve. Let them
go--they'll be glad to come back."

"It's all very well for you to sit there and act brave," laughed Mrs.
Nelson, "but wait till the day arrives."

The force of the argument told on Mrs. Arling.

"Maybe you're right, Caroline," she admitted. "But it must be a great
consolation to see Evan enter such a splendid business."

"That is what consoles me, Mary. Banking is such a respectable,
genteel occupation!"

The dark woman's eyes were bright; she spoke with great pride.

"You're right, Caroline, it is genteel. Bank boys get into such nice
society. And they can always--you know--look so nice!"

"You know, Mary," rejoined the slender woman, "his pa almost repented
giving him permission to quit school. Evan was getting along so well.
He would have taken both his matric. an