time."

"I am that," said Tom, who had been through his own mental struggles
meanwhile.

The two sat down once more to their Thanksgiving dinner, and this time
they managed to eat, though Jack choked whenever he thought of tasting
a bit of Jessie's pet turkey, Winnie; and much as he liked turkey, and
a home turkey at that, he could not touch it.

After the meal, when the provisions were stored away in the cupboard
(a soap box) much too small for such a supply, it had grown quite
dark, and the two, still disinclined to talk, went to their beds--if
the rough bunks they occupied may be dignified by that name.

But not to sleep--at least not Jack, who tumbled and tossed all night
and got up in the morning with an energy and life he had not shown for
weeks.

After breakfast Tom shouldered his pick and said:

"I'll go on, Jack, while you clear up." Yet he felt in his heart he
should never see Jack again; for there was a homestruck look in his
face that the man of experience in the ways of runaway boys knew well.

He was not surprised that Jack did not join him, nor that when he
returned at night to the cabin he found him gone and a note pinned up
on the door:

I can't stand it--I'm off for home. You may have my share of
everything.

JACK.

It was a cold evening in early December, and there seemed to be an
undercurrent of excitement in the Jarvis household. The table was
spread in the dining-room with the best silver and linen. Mrs. Jarvis
was better, and had even been able to go into the kitchen to
superintend the preparations for dinner.

Jessie went around with a shining face that no one understood and she
could not explain.

Betty was strangely nervous, and had made several blunders that
morning which mortified the faithful servant very much. An air of
expectancy pervaded the whole house, though the two heads of it had
not a hint of the cause.

Jessie heard the train she had decided to be the important one. She
could hardly contain herself for expectation. She tried hard to sober
herself now and then by the thought, "Perhaps he won't come," but she
couldn't stay sobered, for she felt as certain that he would as that
she lived.

You all know how it happened. The door opened and Jack walked in. One
instant of blank silence, and then a grand convulsion.

Jack fell on his knees with his face in his mother's lap, though he
had not thought