"And all of us heart-broken but T.O.--girls, where's T.O.?"

She was not there. The train was getting under way. In a flurry they
huddled to the windows.

"Good-by! Good-by!" shouted a gay voice from the platform. A little
white envelope flew in at one of the open windows. T.O., quite calm
and unexcited, stood out there waving to them.

"What in the world!" ejaculated Laura Ann, then stopped. For she alone
could see a little ray of light. "Read the letter," she said more
quietly. "The letter will tell us."

They all read it together, their heads bunched closely.

"Dear girls, I'm going to stay. I never was needed before, but I guess
I am now. And maybe you'll think it's funny, but I'm _wanted_! An
imaginary daughter can't wait on a poor little cripple--it takes the
flesh-and-blood kind. I found out she wanted me, and so I'm going to
stay. It would have been lonesome, anyway, all alone in the Hive!
I bequeath all my rights to you--"

"As if she had any now, any more than the rest of us!" muttered Billy
fiercely, her eyes full of tears.

"Sometimes when you're going and coming, some o' you listen to the
car-wires sing, for me, and the wheels rattle," the letter went on.
"Bump into somebody sometime for me! Good-by. You're all of you dears.