after lunch.

"I can't! I'm going to that kid's funeral!" he said, and strode up the
stairs with his arms full of books.

"Good night!" said Pat, in dismay.

"Morbid!" ejaculated Tennelly. "Say, Pat, I don't guess we better let
him go. He'll come home 'all in' again."

But when they found Bill Ward and went up to try and stop Courtland he
had departed by the other door and was half-way down the campus.




CHAPTER VIII


It was all very neat and beautiful in the little, third-story back room.
The gas-stove and other things had disappeared behind the calico
curtain. Before it stood the small white coffin, with the beautiful boy
lying as if he were asleep, the roses strewn about him, and a mass of
valley-lilies at his feet. The girl, white and calm, sat beside him, one
hand resting across the casket protectingly.

Three or four women from the house had brought in chairs, and some of
the neighbors had slipped in shyly, half in sympathy, half in curiosity.
The minister was already there, talking in a low tone in the hall with
the undertaker.