housewives.

"I hain't no doubt of it," Bob was saying, with mock solemnity. "Yer
dad can eat more an' run faster an' jump higher an' shoot straighter
than any man what walks round."

"Shucks!" retorted the boy on the fence, with a quick, frown. "That
ain't what I said, and you know it."

"So?" teased Bob. "Well, now, 'twas all I could remember. There's
lots more, 'course, only I furgit 'em, an'--"

"Shut up!" snapped Jim tersely.

"'Course ev'ry one knows he's only a sample," went on Bob
imperturbably. "An' so he's handsomer an'--"

"Will you quit?" demanded Jim sharply.

"No, I won't," retorted Bob, with a quick change of manner. "You 've
been here just two weeks, an' it hain't been nothin' but 'Dad says
this,' an' 'Dad says that,' ever since. Jiminy! a feller'd think you'd
made out ter have the only dad that's goin'!"

There was a pause--so long a pause that the boy on the grass sent a
sideways glance at the motionless figure on the fence.

"It wa'n't right, of course," began Jim, at last, awkwardly, "crowin'
over dad as I do. I never thought how--how 't would make the rest of
you fellers feel." Bob, on the grass, bridled and opened his lips, but
something in Jim's rapt face kept him from giving voice to his scorn.
"'Course there ain't any one like dad--there can't be," continued Jim
hurriedly. "He treats me white, an' he's straight there every time.
Dad don't dodge. Maybe I should n't say so much about him, only--well,
me an' dad are all alone. There ain't any one else; they're dead."

The boy on the grass turned over and kicked both heels in the air; then
he dug at the turf with his forefinger. He wished he would not think
of his mother and beloved little sister May just then. He opened his
eyes very wide and winked hard, once, twice, and again. He tried to
speak; failing in that, he puckered his lips for a whistle. But the
lips twitched and would not stay steady, and the whistle, when it came,
sounded like nothing so much as the far-away fog-whistle off the shore
at night. With a snort of shamed terror lest that lump in his throat
break loose, Bob sprang upright and began to turn a handspring with
variations.

"Bet ye can't do this," he challenged thickly.

"Bet ye I can," retorted Jim, landing with a thump at Bob's side.

It was after supper the next night that the two boys again occupied the
fence and the grass-plot. They had fallen into the way of discussing
at this time the d