ou just give me a few dollars and let
me go to that Cattle Show and--"

"No, Kenelm, that I can't do. You are goin' to leave Mrs. Barnes' place;
I want you to do that, for the sake of your self-respect. But you must
stay there and help her tomorrow. It's your duty."

"Darn my duty! I'll LEAVE tomorrow, that's what I'll do."

"Oh dear! There you go again. Profane language and bettin' on horses!
WHAT'LL come next? My own brother a gambler and a prodigate! Has it come
to this?"

The footsteps and voices died away. Captain Obed blew out the light and
got into bed. The last words he heard that night were uttered by the
"prodigate" himself on his way to his sleeping quarters. And they were
spoken as a soliloquy.

"By time!" muttered Kenelm, as he shuffled slowly past the Captain's
door. "By time! I--I'll do somethin' desperate!"

Next morning, when Captain Obed's hired motor car, with its owner, a
Wellmouth Centre man, acting as chauffeur, rolled into the yard of the
High Cliff House, a party of three came out to meet it. John Kendrick
and Emily Howes were of the party and they were wrapped and ready for
the trip. The captain had expected them; but the third, also dressed for
the journey, was Mrs. Thankful Barnes. Thankful's plump countenance was
radiant.

"I'm goin' after all," she announced. "I'm goin' to the Fair with you,
Cap'n Bangs. Now what do you think of that? . . . That is," she added,
looking at the automobile, "if you can find a place to put me."

The captain's joy was as great as his surprise. "Place to put you!" he
repeated. "If I couldn't do anything else I'd hang on behind, like a
youngster to a truck wagon, afore you stayed at home. Good for you, Mrs.
Thankful! But how'd you come to change your mind? Thought you couldn't
leave."

Thankful smiled happily. "I didn't change my mind, Cap'n," she said.
"Imogene changed hers. She's a real, good sacrificin' body, the girl
is. When she found I'd been asked and wouldn't go, she put her foot down
flat. Nothin' would do but she should stay at home today and I should
go. I knew what a disappointment 'twas to her, but she just made me do
it. She'll go tomorrow instead; that's the way we fixed it finally. I'm
awful glad for myself, but I do feel mean about Imogene, just the same."

A few minutes later, the auto, with John, Emily and Thankful on the rear
seat and Captain Obed in front with the driver, rolled out of the yard
and along the sandy road toward Wellmo