is summer,
though, for the finishing touches; and when she comes home to stay, you
are coming with her."

Auntie Sue shook her head, smiling: "Now, Homer, you know that is
settled: I will never leave my little log house by the river until I
have watched the last sunset. You know, my dear boy, that I would be
miserable in the city."

It was an old point often argued by them, and the man dismissed it, now,
with a brief: "We'll see about that when the time comes. But, why didn't
you bring Betty Jo with you?"

"Because," Auntie Sue answered, "I came away hurriedly, on a very
important trip, for only a day, and it is necessary for her to stay and
keep house while I am gone. The child must learn to cook, Homer, even if
she is to inherit all your money."

"I know," answered the banker;--"the same as you make me work when I
visit you. But your coming to me sounds rather serious, Auntie Sue. What
is your trouble?"

The dear old lady laughed, nervously; for, to tell the truth, she did
not quite know how she was going to manage to present Brian Kent's case
to Homer T. Ward without presenting more than she was at this time ready
to reveal.

"Why, you see, Homer," she began, "it is not really my trouble as much
as it is yours, and it is not yours as much as it is--"

"Betty Jo's?" he asked quickly, when she hesitated.

"No! no!" she cried. "The child doesn't even know why I am here. Just
try to forget her for a few minutes, Homer."

"All right," he said; "but you had me worried for a minute."

Auntie Sue might have answered that she was somewhat worried herself;
but, instead, she plunged with desperate courage: "I came to see you
about Brian Kent, Homer."

It is not enough to say that the President of the Empire Consolidated
Savings Bank was astonished. "Brian Kent?" he said at last. "Why, Auntie
Sue, I wrote you nearly a year ago that Brian Kent was dead."

"Yes, I know; but he was not--that is, he is not. But the Brian Kent
your detectives were hunting was--I mean--is."

Homer T. Ward looked at his old teacher as though he feared she had
suddenly lost her mind.

"It is like this, Homer," Auntie Sue explained: "A few days after
your detective, Mr. Ross, called on me, this stranger appeared in the
neighborhood. No one dreamed that he was Brian Kent, because, you see,
he was not a bit like the description."

"Full beard, I suppose?" commented the banker, grimly.

"Yes: and every other way," continued Auntie Sue.