ng as I intend to."

Harlan was gazing curiously at Dorothy, but she avoided his eyes, and
continued to eat as though nothing had happened. Dick, guessing rightly,
choked, and had to be excused. Elaine's cheeks were flushed and her eyes
sparkled, the flush deepening when Mrs. Dodd inquired where _her_
valentine was. Mr. Perkins was openly dejected, and Mrs. Dodd, receiving
no answer to her question, compressed her thin lips into a forced
silence.

But Uncle Israel was moved to protesting speech. "'T is queer doin's for
Santa Claus," he mumbled, pouring out a double dose of his nerve tonic.
"'T ain't such a thing as he'd do, even if he was drunk. Turnin' a poor
old man outdoor, what ain't got no place to go exceptin' to Betsey's, an'
nobody can't live with Betsey. She's all the time mad at herself on
account of bein' obliged to live with such a woman as she be. Summers I've
allers stayed here an' never made no trouble. I've cooked my own food an'
brought most of it, an' provided all my own medicines, an' even took my
bed with me, goin' an' comin'. Ebeneezer's beds is all terrible drafty--I
took two colds to once sleepin' in one of 'em--an' at my time of life 't
ain't proper to change beds. Sleepin' in a drafty bed would undo all the
good of bein' near the sanitarium. Most likely I'll have a fever or
sunthin' now an' die."

"Shut up, Israel," said Mrs. Dodd, abruptly. "You ain't goin' to die. It
wouldn't surprise me none if you had to be shot on the Day of Judgment
before you could be resurrected. Folks past ninety-five that's pickled in
patent medicine from the inside out, ain't goin' to die of no fever."

"Ninety-six, Belinda," said the old man, proudly. "I'll be ninety-six next
week, an' I'm as young as I ever was."

"Then," rejoined Mrs. Dodd, tartly, "what you want to look out for is
measles an' chicken-pox, to say nothin' of croup."

"Come, Gladys Gwendolen and Algernon Paul," interrupted Mrs. Holmes, in a
high key; "we must go and pack now, to go away from dear uncle's. Dear
uncle is dead, you know, and can't help his dear ones being ordered out of
his house by upstarts."

"What's a upstart, ma?" inquired Willie.

"People who turn their dead uncle's relations out of his house in order to
take boarders," returned Mrs. Holmes, clearly.

"Mis' Carr," said Mrs. Dodd, sliding up into Dick's vacant place, "have I
understood that you want me to go away to-morrow?"

"Everybody is going away to-morrow," returned