ng!" broke in Billy. "He can't ever take all the
meat any more."

"Billy!" gasped Elnora.

"Never you mind!" said Sinton. "A child doesn't say such things about a
father who loved and raised him right. When it happens, the father alone
is to blame. You won't hear Billy talk like that about me when I cross
over."

"You don't mean you are going to take him to keep!"

"I'll soon need help," said Wesley. "Billy will come in just about right
ten years from now, and if I raise him I'll have him the way I want
him."

"But Aunt Margaret doesn't like boys," objected Elnora.

"Well, she likes me, and I used to be a boy. Anyway, as I remember
she has had her way about everything at our house ever since we were
married. I am going to please myself about Billy. Hasn't she always done
just as she chose so far as you know? Honest, Elnora!"

"Honest!" replied Elnora. "You are beautiful to all of us, Uncle Wesley;
but Aunt Margaret won't like Billy. She won't want him in her home."

"In our home," corrected Wesley.

"What makes you want him?" marvelled Elnora.

"God only knows," said Sinton. "Billy ain't so beautiful, and he ain't
so smart, I guess it's because he's so human. My heart goes out to him."

"So did mine," said Elnora. "I love him. I'd rather see him eat my lunch
than have it myself any time."

"What makes you like him?" asked Wesley.

"Why, I don't know," pondered Elnora. "He's so little, he needs so
much, he's got such splendid grit, and he's perfectly unselfish with his
brother and sister. But we must wash him before Aunt Margaret sees him.
I wonder if mother----"

"You needn't bother. I'm going to take him home the way he is," said
Sinton. "I want Maggie to see the worst of it."

"I'm afraid----" began Elnora.

"So am I," said Wesley, "but I won't give him up. He's taken a sort of
grip on my heart. I've always been crazy for a boy. Don't let him hear
us."

"Don't let him be killed!" cried Elnora. During their talk Billy had
wandered to the edge of the walk and barely escaped the wheels of a
passing automobile in an effort to catch a stray kitten that seemed in
danger.

Wesley drew Billy back to the walk, and held his hand closely. "Are you
ready, Elnora?"

"Yes; you were gone a long time," she said.

Wesley glanced at a package she carried. "Have to have another book?" he
asked.

"No, I bought this for mother. I've had such splendid luck selling my
specimens, I didn't feel right about keeping