something about its being the only thing Yorkburg ever did keep quiet
about. And only then because everybody felt so sorry for her. In a flash
I knew they were talking about me.

After the first understanding, which made everything in me stop,
everything got moving, and all my inward workings worked double quick.
Why my heart didn't get right out on the floor and look up at me. I
don't know. I kept on talking and making up wild things just to keep the
children quiet, but I had to hold myself down to the floor. To help, I
put Billy and Kitty Lee both in my lap.

What I wanted to do was to go to Mrs. Moon and say: "I am twelve and a
half, and I've got the right to know. I want to hear about my uncle. I
don't want to know him, he not caring to know me." But before I could
really think Mrs. Grey spoke again.

"He has no idea his sister left a child. He told me she married very
young, and died a year afterward; and he had heard nothing from her
husband since. As soon as I go home I am going to tell him. I certainly
am."

"You had better not," said Mrs. Moon. "It's been thirteen years since he
left Yorkburg, and, as he has never been back, he evidently doesn't
care to know anything about it. I don't think the ladies would like you
to tell. They are very proud of having kept so quiet out of respect to
her father's wishes. If Parke Alden had wanted to learn anything, he
could have done it years ago."

"But I tell you he doesn't know there's anything to learn." And the
Michigan lady's voice was as snappy as the place she came from. "I know