irrepressible, along. Tommy was more interested in the good things to eat
at his brother's bedside, however, than he was in Billy's bodily condition.

There was so much jelly, and blanc-mange, and other goodies that the
invalid could not possibly consume all. Tommy sat and ate, and ate, until
the nurse said:

"Tommy, don't you know that you are distending your stomach with all those
sweets? It is not good for you."

When Tommy learned that "distending" meant that his stomach was being
stretched, he was delighted.

"Gimme some more, Allie," he begged his sister. "Please do, Allie dear. I
want to stwetch my 'tomach. It's never been big 'nough to hold all I want
to eat."

The interest of Laura and her close friends in the strange man with the
broken leg did not lag. He talked freely with his visitors; but mostly
about Alaska and his adventures in the gold mines.

As near as he could guess, he must have come out of the mines with his
"pile," as he expressed it, almost ten years before.

"What under the canopy I have been doing since, I don't know. But if I've
got down to two thousand dollars capital, I must have been having an
awfully good time spending money; for I know I had a poke full of gold dust
when I struck the coast and went over to Sitka."

"More likely he was robbed," said Chet.