e he is much too young to be self-supporting. If only we
hadn't traded that stock!"

"Maybe what he says about the farm being worth a large sum of money
is true," said Miss Charity timidly. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if
there should be oil here, Sister?"

Miss Hope was a lady, and ladies do not snort, but she came
perilously near to it.

"Humph!" she retorted, crushing her twin with a look. "I'm surprised
at you, Charity! A woman of your age should have more strength of
character than to believe in every fairy tale. Of course Bob and
Betty think there is oil on the farm--they believe in rainbows and
all the other pretty fancies that you and I have outgrown. Besides, I
never did take much stock in this oil talk. I don't think the Lord
would put a fortune into any one's hands so easily. It's a lazy man's
idea of earning a living."

Miss Charity subsided without another reference to oil. Truth to
tell, she did not believe in her heart of hearts that there was oil
sand on the old farm, and she and her sister had been out of touch
with the outside world so long that to a great extent they were
ignorant of the proportions of the oil boom that had struck Flame
City.

Bob had the stables in good order soon after his arrival, and a day
or so before Mr. Gordon was expected he took it into his head to
tinker up the cow stanchions. The two rather scrubby cows were
turned out into the near-by pasture, and Bob set valiantly to work.

Betty was helping the aunts in the kitchen that afternoon, and the
three were surprised when Bob thrust a worried face in at the door
and announced that the black and white cow had disappeared.

"I'm sure I pegged her down tightly," he explained. "That pasture
fence is no good at all, and I never trusted to it. I pegged Blossom
down with a good long rope, and Daisy, too; and Daisy is gone while
Blossom is still eating her head off."

"I'll come and help you hunt," offered Betty. "The last pan of
cookies is in the oven, isn't it, Aunt Hope? Wait till I wash my
hands, Bob."

Betty now called Bob's aunts as he did, at their own request, and
anyway, said Miss Hope, if Betty's uncle could be Bob's, too, why
shouldn't she have two aunts as well as he?

"Where do you think she went?" questioned Betty, hurrying off with
Bob. "Is the fence broken in any place?"

"One place it looks as though she might have stepped over," said Bob
doubtfully. "The whole thing is so old and tottering that a good
heav