next to nothing."

"If it hadn't been for you, you mean," retorted Bob. "Who was it went
and brought back Uncle Dick? I might have shouted myself hoarse, but
those rascals would have beaten me somehow. Do you suppose this Mr.
Vernet is going to buy the place?"

"I think he is the head of Uncle Dick's firm," said Betty cautiously.
"At least I've heard him speak of a Lindley Vernet. But I thought
Uncle Dick offered a lot of money, didn't you, Bob? How many acres
are there?"

"Ninety," announced Bob briefly. "What's that? The door opened, so
they must be through. No, it's only Aunt Charity."

But such a transformed Miss Charity! Her gentle dark eyes were
shining, her cheeks were faintly pink, and she smiled at Betty and
Bob as though something wonderful had happened.

"I came out to tell you," she said mysteriously, sitting down on the
top step between them and putting an arm around each. "The farm is
sold, my darlings. Can you guess for how much?"

"More than twenty thousand?" asked Betty. "Oh--twenty-five?"

"Thirty?" hazarded Bob, seeing that Betty had not guessed it.

Miss Charity laughed excitedly and hugged them with all her frail
strength.

"Mr. Vernet is going to pay us ninety thousand dollars!"

CHAPTER XXV

HAPPY DAYS

"Ninety thousand dollars!" repeated Bob incredulously. "Why, that is
a thousand dollars an acre!"

"He is sure they will drill many paying wells," said Miss Charity.
"To think that this fortune should come in our old age! You can go to
school and college, Bob, and Sister and I will never be a burden on
you. Isn't it just wonderful!"

She went off into a happy little day-dream, and presently the
conference broke up, and Miss Hope and the two men came out on the
porch. Mr. Vernet proved to be a jolly kind of person, intensely
interested in oil and oil prospects, and evidently completely
satisfied with his purchase.

"Here's the young man I have to thank," he commented, shaking hands
with Bob. "If those sharpers had got hold of the place, they would
have forced me to buy at more than a fair risk, or else sold the land
in small holdings and we should have had that abomination, close
drilling. I'm grateful to you, my lad, for outwitting those slick
schemers."

Miss Hope persuaded the two men to stay to dinner, and she and Miss
Charity fairly outdid themselves in their cooking. Afterward Mr.
Gordon took Mr. Vernet back to the oil fields, depositing in the
Flame City bank f