ow this! It's like a
double answer to prayer."

"Boys!" called Elsa, "the beer is waiting."

Ernest was well into his second stein and his third cheese sandwich
before, in response to repeated kicks from Roger, he made his
announcement. There was a moment's silence, broken by Elsa.

"Lucky dogs! Take me along!"

"But, Ernest, you cannot go," protested Papa Wolf. "Let Roger go if he
wishes. I have nothing to say to that. But, my son, with the chance for
a full professorship in a great university--no!"

Roger sighed. He was sorry for Ernest, but he never could understand his
docile relationship to his father. Ernest came back, pluckily enough.

"I think I ought to go, Papa. It will be a fine experience and I will
come back to teaching with a new interest."

"But why waste time? Why waste time?" cried his father. "You are nearly
thirty. Instead of playing in the desert for a year, you should be
marrying and starting a home."

"It won't be play, Mr. Wolf," said Roger. "It'll be bitter hard work,
but it will add considerably to Ernest's reputation."

"Pah! Pah! _Was ist's!_" snorted the older man. "You are a good boy,
Roger, but you are full of foolishness. You are bad for Ernest."

"Pshaw, Papa, don't talk like a goose," protested Elsa, her cheeks
crimson. "All the initiative Ernest's got, Roger gave him. Why not let
Ernest see a little of life before he settles down forever? Let him have
just one adventure, for goodness sake."

"Will you be still, Elsa?" asked her father sternly.

"Hush, Elschen," whispered Mamma Wolf.

"Roger should be settling down and finding a wife for himself," Papa
Wolf went on. "He'd soon get over his absentminded ways."

Ernest suddenly laughed. "Why, Papa, Roger looks on women about the way
you look on inventors."

"Dry up, Ern," said Roger.

"What sort of a thing is it, this desert machine?" asked Uncle Hugo.

"It's a method of utilizing solar heat for power," replied Roger.

"Ah, yes, the big umbrella-like things. I've seen them in the pictures."

"Not at all," corrected Roger crossly.

Ernest spoke suddenly, very firmly but without raising his gentle voice.
"I'm sorry to go against your wishes, Papa, but I'm going, just the
same."

His father's mouth opened in astonishment. There was silence for a
moment, broken by a sob from Mamma Wolf. Then Papa Wolf roared: "So
that's it! You are of age. But disobedience I will not countenance. If
you go, never again can you live in