to scare a orfum boy like that."

"We won't let them take you," comforted Celia Jane, suddenly
affectionate, and put her arm about Jerry's neck.

Darn stepped directly in front of Jerry and stared coolly down at him
until Jerry was so uncomfortable that he couldn't raise his eyes from
the ground.

"You're goin' to the poor farm Wednesday morning," he said calmly,
"because Mrs. Mullarkey's too poor to keep you any longer. She can't
make enough to keep her own kids."

Jerry felt suddenly very little and all alone in a big cold world. Fear
had entered his heart. He felt that Mrs. Mullarkey not only hadn't been
able to make both ends meet but that she was never going to be able to
do it. He some way knew that Darn Darner was telling the truth and that
soon he would be torn away from the only home he could remember. His
lips twisted and he felt the hot tears filling his eyes. Yet he denied
Darn's statement with all his soul.

"They won't! They shan't take me! I'll run away first!"

"Much good that would do you," commented Darn unsympathetically. "It'd
be easy enough to find you."

"How do you know they're goin' to take Jerry away?" asked Chris.

"He don't know it!" cried Nora. "He's jest tryin' to scare us."

"No, I ain't," denied Darn. "My father's overseer of the poor in this
county and I guess I heard him tell mamma last night that he was goin'
to take Jerry to the poor farm Wednesday morning. He said Mrs. Mullarkey
had agreed as to how she'd hafta let him take Jerry because her
insurance money from Mr. Mullarkey was all gone and she couldn't make
enough to support her own kids."

"It ain't so!" blustered Jerry, but all the time terribly frightened. He
tried to think of something to say that would show he was not afraid of
Darn Darner, who was always picking on little boys.

"You shan't go!" Celia Jane cried, tears running down her cheeks. She
flung both arms around Jerry's neck and squeezed him passionately.

"What will Kathleen do without Jerry?" asked Nora in a choked voice.

Jerry looked up and saw that she was quietly weeping, too. They believed
it! Believed that Mother 'Larkey would let them take him away! He had
been somewhat comforted by their stout assertions that Darn's words were
false, but now--!

He was stunned. Then his lips twisted and twitched and the tears that
had been forming in his eyes spilled silently over.

"Don't get scared, Jerry," Danny tried to comfort him. Then he turned to
t