m school and said he wanted to see father as
soon as he came home. Couldn't I telephone father and ask him to come
home at once, that there was someone there wanting to see him on
important business? He finally called him up himself and when father
got there they went into a room by themselves and talked until late
into the night. When at last Mr.--that is--the _man_, went away,
father did not go to bed but walked up and down the floor in his study
all night long. Toward morning I could not stand it any longer. I knew
my father was in trouble. So I went down to him, and when I saw him I
was terribly frightened. His face was white and drawn and his eyes
burned like coals of fire. He looked at me with a look that I never
shall forget. He took me in his arms and lifted up my face, a way he
often had when he was in earnest, and he seemed to be looking down
into my very soul. 'Little girl,' he said, 'we're in deep trouble. I
don't know whether I've done right or not.' There was something in his
voice that made me tremble all over, and he saw I was frightened and
tried to be calm himself. 'Janie,' he said--he always called me Janie
when he was deeply moved--'Janie, it may hit hardest on you, and oh, I
meant your life to be so safe and happy!'

"I tried to tell him it didn't matter about me, and for him not to be
troubled, but he went on telling about it. It seems the father of this
man had once done a great deal for my father when he was in a very
trying situation, and father always felt an obligation to look after
the son. Indeed, he had promised when the old man was dying that he
would be a brother to him no matter what happened. And now the son had
been speculating and got deep into debt. He had formed some kind of
stock company, something to do with Western land and mines. I never
fully understood it all, but there had been a lot of fraudulent
dealing, although father only suspected that at the time, but anyway,
everything was going to fall through and the man was going to be
brought up in disgrace before the world if somebody didn't help him
out. And father felt obliged to stand by him. Of course, he did not
know how bad it was, because the man had not told him all the truth,
but father had taken over the obligations of the whole thing. He
thought he might be able to pull the thing out of trouble by putting a
good deal of his own money into it, and make it a fair and square
proposition for all the stockholders without th