in't no lottery scheme; is
it? If it is I want to warn you that I'm a deacon in the church. I
wouldn't go into any lottery unless I was sure I could win. I don't
believe in gambling. As a deacon of the church I couldn't countenance
nothing like that. No gambling!"

"This is not a gamble," Larson assured him. "It's a sure thing. I'll
show you how to make twenty thousand dollars!"

"I--I guess I'd better open a window in here, so we can see," said
Uncle Ezra, faintly. "That's quite a pile of money to talk about in
the dark," and to the horror of Aunt Samantha she saw, a little later,
the sun shamelessly streaming in on her carpet that had only been
treated to such indignities on the occasions of a funeral, or something
like that. The parlor of the Dankville house was like a tomb in this
respect.

CHAPTER XIII

UNCLE EZRA ACTS QUEERLY

Exactly what passed between Uncle Ezra Larabee and his caller, Aunt
Samantha never learned. She was so overcome at seeing the parlor
opened, that perhaps she did not listen sufficiently careful. She
overheard the murmur of voices, and, now and then, such expressions as
"above the clouds," "in the air," "twenty thousand dollars, and maybe
more."

"Gracious goodness!" she murmured as she hurried out to the kitchen,
where she smelled something burning on the stove. "I wonder what it's
all about? Can Ezra have lost money on some of his investments? If he
has, if it's gone up above the clouds, and in the air, the way he's
talking about it things will be terrible; terrible! It will come nigh
onto killin' him, I expect!"

She went back to listen again outside the parlor door, but could make
out nothing.

She did catch, however, her husband's expression of:

"Twenty thousand dollars! It's a pile of money! A heap!"

"Oh my!" she murmured faintly. "If he's lost that we'll go to the
poorhouse, sure!"

But nothing like that happened. As a matter of fact Uncle Ezra could
have lost that sum several times over, and not have felt it except in
the anguish of his mind.

When the caller had gone, Uncle Ezra seemed rather cheerful, much to
the amazement of Aunt Samantha. She could not understand it. At the
same time her husband appeared to be worried about something.

"But he doesn't act as though he had lost a lot of money," his wife
reasoned. "He certainly acts queer, but not just that way. I wonder
what it can be?"

And during the next week Uncle Ezra acted more qu