"They seemed to be through with me up there in the country," he
explained, gently. "At least they said they were, and they wouldn't
keep me any longer, because so many really sick people wanted to get
in. They told me to go home--and I didn't have any place else to go.
It'll be all right, Edith; I'll sit in the woodshed until after dark
every day."

"Pshaw!" She laughed nervously. "Of course we're all of us glad to
have you back."

"Yes?" he said. "Father?"

"Of course! Didn't he write and tell you to come home?" She did not
turn to him with the question. All the while she rode with her face
directly forward.

"No," he said; "father hasn't written."

She flushed a little. "I expect I ought to've written sometime, or
one of the boys--"

"Oh no; that was all right."

"You can't think how busy we've all been this year, Bibbs. I often
planned to write--and then, just as I was going to, something would
turn up. And I'm sure it's been just the same way with Jim and
Roscoe. Of course we knew mamma was writing often and--"

"Of course!" he said, readily. "There's a chunk of coal fallen on