Go
home?"

"Mr. Ludlow has made some arrangements for Ruth to sing and for me to
play here in San Francisco, at private houses of the rich. As you
know, all of the others except Mr. Dauntrey, have gone east, their
contracts expired."

Their conversation was interrupted, now, by Aunt Betty, who came into
the room.

"Here is a much belated letter," she exclaimed, "the envelope all
marked up with forwarding addresses. It must have been traveling about
for quite some time."

"It's from Jim," cried Dorothy, and quickly broke the seal. The
postmark the letter bore was a date fully two months back, and the
first few lines were, to the recipient very pleasing ones, till she
remembered that they were written before their late disagreement. But
the major part of the letter bore upon a subject that concerned them
all, and this she read aloud.

"It's about Lem," cried Dorothy. "Mr. Van Zandt has made some quite
wonderful discoveries. And just to think, it all comes about through
that sampler you found, Alfy. But let me read:

"I have some interesting news concerning Lemuel Haley, the boy your
camping party found in the thick woods crying that night. It was a
lucky thing for the boy that Mrs. Babcock gave Alfaretta that sampler,
for from just such a simple little thing as that, we have been able to
trace all of Lem's family history, bringing out a sufficient,
although I will not say good, reason for his uncle's mistreatment of
him.

"Lemuel Haley's mother was Hannah Woodrow. The very same girl
that summered with Mrs. Babcock, and remained there attending
the little village school for one whole year. She was a very
delicate girl, not particularly pretty and very shy. She had
large limpid brown eyes, and was of small build.

"She returned to Baltimore, after her year in the mountains,
and lived the regulation life of a wealthy farmer's daughter.
There Mr. Haley, a traveling salesman, so he told her family,
fell in love with her or--her money, and when both her father
and mother died quite suddenly, the traveling salesman made
it his business to woo the lonely girl. He wished to marry
her immediately and protect her, so he told her, and was so
persistent that the poor distracted, grief-stricken girl
finally gave him her promise, and within a month of her
parents' death married him. At once he proceeded to dissipate
her fortune, and, to make a long story short,