bragging among the men of the settlement. Strange men appeared on
the street, and other men slapped their backs and shook hands with
them and shouted loudly and happily at them. In time, he came to
understand that these were the citizens who had gone off to fight
in the war and were now home again, all safe and sound. He began
to watch for his father. He would know him a million miles off, he
was so big, and he had the biggest rifle in the world.

"Do you s'pose Pa will know how to find me, grandma?" he would
inquire. "'Cause, you see, I don't live where I used to."

And his grandmother, beset with this and similar questions from
one day's end to the other, would become very busy over what she
was doing at the time and tell him not to pester her. He did not
like to ask his grandfather. He was so stern,--even when he was
sitting all alone on the porch and was not busy at all.

Then one day he saw his grandparents talking together on the porch.
Aunt Hettie was with them, but she was not talking. She was just
looking at him as he played down by the watering trough. He distinctly
heard his grandma say:

"I think he ought to be told, Richard. It's a sin to let him go
on thinking---" The rest of the sentence was lost to him when she
suddenly lowered her voice. They were all looking at him.

Presently his grandfather called to him, and beckoned with his
finger. He marched up to the porch with his little bow and arrow.
Grandma turned to go into the house, and Aunt Hettie hurried away.