the
checks. You've noticed that your Uncle Lawrence has turned his theater
into a moving-picture shop with a yellow-haired girl selling tickets at
the gate; and your Uncle Paul has given notice that he's going to start
the brickyard again. He's got contracts to keep him going for six
months. And your Uncle Waterman's started in to pay a few of his debts
on the installment plan. That's all your mother's money."

A wan smile flitted across Phil's face.

"What you laughing at?" Amzi demanded.

"Nothing," said Phil; "only I seem to remember that I once said
something to Lawr_i_nce about cutting out the drammer and putting on the
reel. And Paul and I had some talk once about bricks--" she ended
meditatively.

"Your ideas, both of 'em, I bet!" declared Amzi furiously. "I thought
those fellows never had that much sense all by themselves."

"Oh, nothing like that!" replied Phil.

"I just thought I ought to tell you what your mother did. Lois didn't
say for me not to tell you. I guess she thought I most likely would."

"I'm glad you did, Amy. Everything I know about mamma makes me love her
that much more."

Amzi turned to push the regulator on the fan, and when it had ceased
humming he rested his arms on the table and said:--

"Seems Nan's not going to marry your father, after all?"

"No, that's all over," she answered indifferently.

"It was fine of your mother to want them to marry."

"Yes, it was like her. She is wonderful about everything,--thinks of
everything and wants everybody to be happy."

Phil clasped her crossed knees in her hands, and did not meet her
uncle's eyes. The ache in her heart that was not to be stilled wholly
through many years cried aloud.

"Nan is a splendid woman and a mighty good friend to all of us. And your
father's got a new shove up the ladder, and is doing splendidly. Nan did
a lot for him!"

Phil loosened her hands and they fell helplessly to her sides.

"Oh," she cried, "I don't understand all these things, Amy! If mamma
hadn't come back, Nan and daddy would have married; but I don't see how
they could! It's clear beyond me how people see things one way one day
and another way the next. What's the matter with all of us anyhow, that
right isn't always right? In old times people mostly got married and
stayed married, and knew their minds, but nowadays marriage seems so
purely incidental. It's got to be almost ree-diculous, Amy."

"Well, Phil, I guess we all do the best we ca