"I was nearly twelve years old; do you think I escaped all the
gossip, mother?"

"You never spoke of it to me, Ivory."

"No, there is much that I never spoke of to you, mother, but
sometime when you grow stronger and your memory is better we will
talk together.--Do you remember the winter, long after father
went away, that Parson Lane sent me to Fairfield Academy to get
enough Greek and Latin to make me a schoolmaster?"

"Yes," she answered uncertainly.

"Don't you remember I got a free ride down-river one Friday and
came home for Sunday, just to surprise you? And when I got here I
found you ill in bed, with Mrs. Mason and Dr. Perry taking care
of you. You could not speak, you were so ill, but they told me
you had been up in New Hampshire to see your sister, that she had
died, and that you had brought back her boy, who was only four
years old. That was Rod. I took him into bed with me that night,
poor, homesick little fellow, and, as you know, mother, he's
never left us since."

"I didn't remember I had a sister. Is she dead, Ivory? " asked
Mrs. Boynton vaguely.

"If she were not dead, do you suppose you would have kept Rodman
with us when we hadn't bread enough for our own two mouths,
mother?" questioned Ivory patiently.