ing up. His strength came
very fast. For a week he had sat by the fire and thought--thought.
But no man knew what was in his mind until one day, after he had been
able to walk over the place, he said:

"Tom, you and Alice have been kinder to me--far kinder--than I have
deserved. I am going away forever, next week--to the Northwest--and
begin life over. But there is something I wish to say to you first."

"Dick," said his cousin, and he arose, tall and splendid, before the
firelight--"there is something I wish to say to you first. Our lives
have been far apart and very different, but blood is blood and you
have proved it, else I had not been here to-night to tell it."

He came over and put his hand affectionately on the other's shoulder.
At its touch Richard Travis softened almost to tears.

"Dick, we two are the only grandsons that bear his name, and we
divide this between us. Alice and I have planned it. You are to
retain the house and half the land. We have our own and more than
enough. You will do it, Dick?"

Richard Travis arose, strangely moved. He grasped his cousin's hand.
"No, no, Tom, it is not fair. No Travis was ever a welcher. It is all
yours--you do not understand--I saw the will--I do not want it. I am
going away forever. My life must lead now in other paths. But--"

The other turned quickly and looked deep into Richard Travis's eyes.
"I can see there is no use of my trying to change your mind, Dick,
though I had hoped--"

The other shook his head. It meant a Travis decision, and his cousin
knew it.

"But as I started to say, Tom, and there is no need of my mincing
words, if you'll raise that boy of mine--" he was silent awhile, then
smiling: "He is mine and more of a Travis to-day than his father ever
was. If you can help him and his aunt--"

"He shall have the half of it, Dick, and an education, under our
care. We will make a man of him, Alice and I."

Richard Travis said no more.

The week before he left, one beautiful afternoon, he walked over to
Millwood for the last time. For Edward Conway was now sheriff of the
county, and with the assistance of the old bishop, whose fortune now
was secured, he had redeemed his home and was in a fair way to pay
back every dollar of it.

A new servant ushered Travis in, for the good old nurse had passed
away, the strain of that terrible night being too much, first, for
her reason, and afterwards, her life.

Edward Conway was away, but Helen came in p