went on in a
manner grown quite serious:

"You had better send him to school, Anna."

"Yes," replied the mother to Keith's intense surprise, "Carl and I have
been talking it over and practically decided to do so. He certainly
needs some better guidance than he gets from his poor, good-for-nothing
mother."

"Good-for-nothing fiddlesticks!" sputtered the aunt. "You'll make me say
something much worse than rot. Anna, if you keep talking like that when
the boy hears it."

Keith had heard, but his mind was absorbed by the new idea.

"Well," said his mother, "I cannot take care of him properly. He is
running down to that Gustafsson boy all time and most of the time I
can't get him home again except by going for him."

"Johan's mother said yesterday that I hadn't been there half an hour
when you called for me," Keith broke in. "And then she said that I had
better not come back if you don't think Johan good enough for to
play with."

"I don't say we are better than anybody else," said the mother,
addressing herself to the aunt rather than to Keith. "But I don't know
what he is doing when he is down there, and Johan seems such a clod that
I can't see why Keith wants to play with him."

"Why can't Johan come up here," asked Keith.

"Because ...," said his mother, and got no further.

"Yes," the aunt declared in a tone of absolute finality, "you must send
him to school."

No sooner had the aunt taken her leave than Keith assailed his mother
with excited demands for further information. She took his head between
her both hands and looked at him as if she would never see him again.

"Only five," she said at last, "and already he wants to get away. A few
years more--a few short years--and you will be gone for good,
I suppose."

"Oh, mamma," he protested, "you know that I shall never leave you!"

"No, never entirely," she cried, kissing him fervently. "Promise me you
won't, Keith!"

He promised, and then he wanted to know what they did in school. But she
began to talk about difficulties and dangers and temptations and all
sorts of things he couldn't grasp. She spoke with intense feeling, and
as always when she was deeply moved, his whole being was set vibrating
in tune with her mood. His cheeks flushed, his throat choked, his eyes
brimmed over with tears, and at last he began to wonder whether he had
not better stay right where he was. Her eyes were dim with tears, too,
and once more she took his head between her