amma."

"Yes, and if he says anything against me, don't be afraid to come out
with it," interjected Uncle Isaac. "Will and I didn't get along
well--that's no secret. He didn't like work, and he didn't hesitate to
say so. I've no doubt he had hard feelings against me, but I say here
and now that I treated him as I would my own son. I made him work harder
than I would my own son, in fact, for I felt that I had a duty to do by
Will."

"And I guess you did it--too well," muttered Grace, with rather a
vindictive look at her uncle, which look, however, he did not see.

"Well, to be frank with you, Isaac," spoke Mr. Ford, "the boy says that
he did not like the life in the factory. But I did not suppose he would.
I did not send him there to like it, but I thought the discipline would
do him good. However, he seems to have struck out for himself."

"But, Daddy!" cried Grace, clinging to his arm. "What has happened?
Where is Will? Where did he go?"

"There now," he said, soothingly. "It seems to be all right, and Will is
in no danger. All your tears were wasted. To be brief, he writes that he
did not like the work in the mill, and getting a chance to go to
Jacksonville, Florida, he took it and went without the formality of a
good-bye."

"What is he doing in Jacksonville?" asked Mollie. "If we go to Amy's
orange grove we may see him."

"He writes that he has a chance to get in with a concern that is going
to develop some of the Everglade lands," went on Mr. Ford, referring to
the letter. 'The company plans to drain the swamps, and grow pecans,
oranges and other tropical fruits and nuts.' Will says he was offered a
sort of secretaryship to one of the developers, and took it.

"He asks my permission to stay and 'make good,' as he calls it. He
thinks it is a great chance; better even than the cotton business,
Isaac."

"Oh, yes, I s'pose so. There's a lot of folks been fooled in those
Everglade-developing concerns, though. They're fakes, to my way of
thinking. But let him live and learn. That's the only way."

"Are you going to let him stay down there?" asked Grace.

"Well, I don't know," said Mr. Ford, musingly. "I don't bank much on
Will's knowledge of affairs. This company may be all right, and again it
may not. I'd rather investigate a bit."

"Will says," he went on, again referring to the letter, "that he is
sorry he went off in the abrupt way he did, but he felt that it was the
only method to pursue. He says he fe