Responsibility, and was keeping ever before her the Important Trust.

In June Bertram took a cottage at the South Shore, and by the time the
really hot weather arrived the family were well settled. It was only an
hour away from Boston, and easy of access, but William said he guessed
he would not go; he would stay in Boston, sleeping at the house, and
getting his meals at the club, until the middle of July, when he was
going down in Maine for his usual fishing trip, which he had planned to
take a little earlier than usual this year.

"But you'll be so lonesome, Uncle William," Billy demurred, "in this
great house all alone!"

"Oh, no, I sha'n't," rejoined Uncle William. "I shall only be sleeping
here, you know," he finished, with a slightly peculiar smile.

It was well, perhaps, that Billy did not exactly realize the
significance of that smile, nor the unconscious emphasis on the word
"sleeping," for it would have troubled her not a little.

William, to tell the truth, was quite anticipating that sleeping.
William's nights had not been exactly restful since the baby came. His
evenings, too, had not been the peaceful things they were wont to be.

Some of Billy's Rules and Tests were strenuously objected to on the part
of her small son, and the young man did not hesitate to show it. Billy
said that it was good for the baby to cry, that it developed his lungs;
but William was very sure that it was not good for _him_. Certainly,
when the baby did cry, William never could help hovering near the center
of disturbance, and he always _had_ to remind Billy that it might be a
pin, you know, or some cruel thing that was hurting. As if he, William,
a great strong man, could sit calmly by and smoke a pipe, or lie in his
comfortable bed and sleep, while that blessed little baby was crying
his heart out like that! Of course, if one did not _know_ he was
crying--Hence William's anticipation of those quiet, restful nights when
he could not know it.

Very soon after Billy's arrival at the cottage, Aunt Hannah and Alice
Greggory came down for a day's visit. Aunt Hannah had been away from
Boston for several weeks, so it was some time since she had seen the
baby.

"My, but hasn't he grown!" she exclaimed, picking the baby up and
stooping to give him a snuggling kiss. The next instant she almost
dropped the little fellow, so startling had been Billy's cry.

"No, no, wait, Aunt Hannah, please," Billy was entreating, hurrying to
the