r home with him.

There was a baby in Julia's home, and it had so wound itself around
May's heartstrings that she could not be enticed away; but there was
never anybody who could supplant Will in my heart; so I gladly accepted
his invitation.

Thoreau has somewhere drawn a sympathetic portrait of the Landlord, who
is supposed to radiate hospitality as the sun throws off heat--as its
own reward--and who feeds and lodges men purely from a love of the
creatures. Yet even such a landlord, if he is to continue long in
business, must have an eye to profit, and make up in one corner what
he parts with in another. Now, Will radiated hospitality, and his
reputation as a lover of his fellowman got so widely abroad that
travelers without money and without price would go miles out of
their way to put up at his tavern. Socially, he was an irreproachable
landlord; financially, his shortcomings were deplorable.

And then the life of an innkeeper, while not without its joys and
opportunities to love one's fellowman, is somewhat prosaic, and our
guests oftentimes remarked an absent, far-away expression in the eyes of
Landlord Cody. He was thinking of the plains. Louise also remarked that
expression, and the sympathy she felt for his yearnings was accentuated
by an examination of the books of the hostelry at the close of the first
six months' business. Half smiling, half tearful, she consented to his
return to his Western life.

Will disposed of the house and settled his affairs, and when all the
bills were paid, and Sister Lou and I cozily ensconced in a little home
at Leavenworth, we found that Will's generous thought for our comfort
through the winter had left him on the beach financially. He had planned
a freighting trip on his own account, but the acquiring of a team,
wagon, and the rest of the outfit presented a knotty problem when he
counted over the few dollars left on hand.

For the first time I saw disappointment and discouragement written on
his face, and I was sorely distressed, for he had never denied me a
desire that he could gratify, and it was partly on my account that he
was not in better financial condition. I was not yet sixteen; it would
be two years more before I could have a say as to the disposition of my
own money, yet something must be done at once.

I decided to lay the matter before Lawyer Douglass. Surely he
could suggest some plan whereby I might assist my brother. I had a
half-matured plan of my own,