livin' in a hotel because they ain't got no home ner nobody
to make 'em feel glad to see 'em. If they're goin' to patronize the
Cambridge House they're goin' to get the best that's comin' to 'em right
then."

So the old dining-room was a joy at this time of the week, with all that
a good cook can make attractive to the appetite.

Mary Gentry, sweet-tempered and credulous as in her childhood, grew up
into a home-lover. We all wondered why John Anderson, who was studying
medicine, should fancy Mary, plain good girl that she was. John had been
a bashful boy and a hard student whom the girls failed to interest. But
the home Mary made for him later, and her two sons that grew up in it,
are justification of his choice of wife. The two boys are men now, one
in Seattle, and one in New York City. Both in high places of trust and
financial importance.

One October Sabbath afternoon, O'mie fell into step beside Marjie on the
way from Sabbath-school. Since his terrible experience in the Hermit's
Cave five years before, he had never been strong. We became so
accustomed to his little hacking cough we did not notice it until there
came a day to all of us when we looked back and wondered how we could
have been so inattentive to the thing growing up before our eyes. O'mie
was never anything but a good-hearted Irishman, and yet he had a keener
insight into character and trend of events than any other boy or man I
ever knew. I've always thought that if his life had been spared to
mature manhood--but it wasn't.

"Marjie, I'm commissioned to invite you to the Cambridge House for
lunch," O'mie said. "Mary wants to see you. She's got a lame arm, fell
off a step ladder in the pantry. The papers on the top shelves had been
on there fifteen minutes, and Aunt Dollie thought they'd better put up
clean ones. That's the how. Dr. John Anderson's most sure to call
professionally this evening, and Bill Mead's going to bring Bess over
for tea, and there's still others on the outskirts, but you're specially
wanted, as usual. Bud will be there, too. Says he wants to see all the
Andersons once more before he leaves town, and he knows it's his last
chance; for John's forever at the tavern, and Bill Mead is monopolizing
Bess at home; and you know, Star-face, how Clayton divides himself
around among the Whatelys and Grays over at Red Range and a girl he's
got up at Lawrence."

"All this when I'm starving for one of Aunt Dollie's good lunches. Offer
some