onths, Janoah Eldridge. I've had my fill of pumps fur
one spell."

The freckled face in the door expanded its smile into a grin that
displayed the few scattered teeth adorning its owner's jaws.

"No," went on the inventor, "I ain't attackin' no pumps to-day. I'm
sorter takin' a vacation. You see we've got company. Tiny's nephew,
Bob Morton from Indiana, has come to stay with us. This is him on the
nail keg."

Shuffling further into the room Jan peered inquisitively at the guest.

"So you're Tiny's nephew, eh?" he commented, examining the visitor's
countenance with curiosity. "Well, well! To think of some of Tiny's
relations turnin' up at last! Not that it ain't high time, I'll say
that. Now which of the Mortons do you belong to, young man?"

"Elnathan."

"I might 'a' known first glance, for you're like him as his tintype."

Bob laughed.

"Aunt Tiny thinks I am, too."

"She'd oughter know," was the dry comment. "She had the plague of
bringin' him up from the time he could toddle. I'm glad some of you
have finally got round to comin' to see her. You've been long enough
doin' it. I ain't so sure, though, but if I was in her place I'd--"

"There, there, Jan," interrupted Willie nervously, "why go diggin' up
the past? The lad is here now an'--"

"But they have been the devil of a while takin' notice of Tiny," Janoah
persisted, not to be coaxed away from his subject. "Why, 'twas only
the other day when we was workin' out here that you yourself said the
way her folks had neglected her was outrageous."

"And it was, too, Mr. Eldridge," confessed Bob, flushing. "Our whole
family have treated Aunt Tiny shamefully. There is no excuse for it."

Before the honest admission of blame, Jan's mounting wrath grudgingly
calmed itself.

"Well," he grumbled in a more conciliatory tone, "as Willie says, mebbe
it's just as well not to go bringin' to life what's buried already.
Like as not there may have been some good reason for your folks never
comin' back to Wilton after once they'd left the place. Indiana's the
devil of a distance away--'most at the other end of the world, ain't
it? You might as well live in China as Indiana. I never could see
anyway what took people out of Wilton. There ain't a better spot on
earth to live than right here. Yet for all that, every one of the
Mortons 'cept Tiny (who showed her good sense, in my opinion) went
flockin' out of this town quick as they was growed, like as i