ld--after all these years."

"Will you leave the matter to me for a few days? And Sherm, make an
effort to eat something for Chicken Little's sake--she is worrying her
heart out over your trouble. You have some good friends right
here--don't forget that. Dr. Morton watched by you all night. Brace up
and be a man. I know you have it in you, Sherm."

Letters came to Sherm in a short time from Sue Dart, from Dick and Alice
Harding, and from Mrs. Halford, who painstakingly wrote him all the
details of his supposed father's last days. She evidently knew nothing
of his not being the Dart's own son. Sue's letter seemed to comfort him
a little. He did not show it to anyone, even to Chicken Little. He
confided to her, however, that the folks were sending his things to him
the next day. They had already broken up the home and were going back to
Chicago with Sue the following week.

When the express package arrived, Sherm took it straight to Jane.

"You open it," he said.

Chicken Little took his knife and cut the string and folded back the
paper wrappings carefully. It seemed some way as if she were meeting
Sherm's mother.

The quaint little old-fashioned garments were musty and faded. A frock
of blue merino braided in an elaborate pattern in black lay on top.
There was a cape to match, and a little cloth cap. Beside these lay a
funny pair of leather boots with red tops--almost like a man's--only,
oh, so tiny!

Chicken Little hardly knew whether to laugh or cry at these.

"Oh, Sherm, did you ever wear them? How you must have strutted! I can
fairly see you."

Sherm smiled and took them up tenderly. Did he, too, feel as if there
were another presence haunting these relics of his childhood?

The tiny yellowed undergarments came next, all made by hand with minute
even stitches. A pair of blue and white striped knitted stockings was
folded with these, and last, at the bottom, a little pasteboard box
appeared, containing a ring, a brooch, and a flat oval locket on a fine
gold chain.

Sherm examined the ring first. Inside was inscribed William-Juanita. May
1860.

The brooch contained a lock of dark hair under a glass; the whole set in
a twisted rim of gold. The locket held miniatures of a white-haired man
and woman with foreign-looking faces. Both Sherm and Chicken Little
looked these over in silence. Presently Sherm sighed, then laid the
trinkets all back in Chicken Little's lap.

"I don't see anything there that could