with a big dish of shiny apples prevented Bob from
following suit.

"Jove, Joanna, you're a good one. How did you come to think of it?" asked
Alec, selecting a beauty and setting his teeth into it with a sense of
refreshment.

"Miss Sally said I was not to forget anything she usually did, Mr. Alec,"
replied Joanna.

"If you remember everything she usually does you'll be a brick, Joanna,"
cried Bob, rousing to his opportunity and getting up on his knees to
accept his apple.

"There's one thing she does, that nobody can possibly do for her,"
thought Jarvis as, consuming the crisp, cool specimen Joanna had bestowed
upon him with a motherly smile for the boy she had known so long, he
paced up and down the room, passing the piano at the end with a vivid
recollection of how Sally was accustomed to play what she called "little
tunes" upon it in the firelight.

"And that's to fill one small corner of her place in the home she has
made here."

CHAPTER XVII

THE SOUTHBOUND LIMITED

Sally's first letter home was a short one, stating merely that Uncle
Timothy was very ill, very glad to see her, and that she was extremely
thankful she had come. The second letter, two days later, showed strong
anxiety. The illness was pneumonia, although not in its severest form;
but Mr. Rudd's age was an important factor in the case. For a week
bulletins were brief, then came a long letter, telling of improvement.

"The minute he is well out of danger she ought to come home," was
Max's opinion.

"She won't, though," Alec predicted. "She'll stay till she can bring him
with her."

"Not if she listens to me," and Max set about writing a reply which would
indicate to his sister in no uncertain terms the course he thought she
should pursue.

Her answer was prompt. "I want to come home just as much as you want to
have me, Max dear, but it is so much to Uncle Timmy to have me with him
I can't think of leaving."

Max frowned over this. "She seems to consult me precious little about
anything lately," he observed to Jarvis.

"You must admit she's grown up and can think for herself. Besides, much
as I'd like to see her back, I think she's right," was Jarvis's opinion.

"Of course you'd side with her against me every time. But I think her
brothers are a trifle nearer to her than her uncle."

"She'd undoubtedly think so too, if you were in bed with pneumonia. Since
you're all in vigorous health she imagines you can get on without h