ed in the army.

"It isn't hard you'll find the old man on you, sweetheart," he told
Ina, "but there's one thing he's got to have, and that is his
breakfast, and a good old Southern one, with plenty to eat, at eight
o'clock, or you'll find him as cross as a bear all day to pay for it."

Ina laughed and blushed, and sprinkled the sugar on her cereal.

"Ina will not mind," said Mrs. Carroll. "She and Charlotte have never
been sleepy-heads."

Eddy glanced resentfully at his mother. He was a little jealous in
these days. He had never felt himself so distinctly in the background
as during these preparations for his sister's wedding.

"I am not a sleepy-head, either, Amy," said he.

"It is a pity you are not," said she, and everybody laughed.

"Eddy is always awake before anybody in the house," said Ina, "and
prowling around and sniffing for breakfast."

"And you bet there is precious little breakfast to sniff lately,
unless we have company," said Eddy, still in his resentful little
pipe; and for a second there was silence.

Then Mrs. Carroll laughed, not a laugh of embarrassment, but a
delightful, spontaneous peal, and the others, even Major Arms, who
had looked solemnly nonplussed, joined her.

Eddy ate his cereal with a sly eye of delight upon the mirthful
faces. "Yes," said he, further. "I wish you'd stay here all the time,
Major Arms, and stay engaged to Ina instead of marrying her; then all
the rest of us would have enough to eat. We always have plenty when
you are here."

He looked around for further applause, but he did not get it.
Charlotte gave him a sharp poke in the side to institute silence.

"What are you poking me for, Charlotte?" he asked, aggrievedly. She
paid no attention to him.

"Don't you think it is strange we don't hear from papa?" said
Charlotte.

Major Arms stared at her. "Do you mean to say you have not heard from
him since he went away?" he asked.

"Not a word," replied Mrs. Carroll, cheerfully.

"I am a little uneasy about papa," said Ina, but she went on eating
her breakfast quite composedly.

"I should be if I had ever known him to fail to take care of
himself," said Mrs. Carroll.

"It's the other folks that had better look out," remarked Eddy, with
perfect innocence, though would-be wit. He looked about for applause.

Arms's eyes twinkled, but he bent over his plate solemnly.

"Eddy, you are talking altogether too much," Anna Carroll said.

"You are unusually silly thi