kfast! Breakfast!" came ringing
out to them from the open door beyond the pump. "Perhaps we'd better not
say anything about it until after breakfast. She's had a powerful
uneasy night, and it's been a good bit of a ride over, too."

To this the boys assented, and the four walked across the yard to the
kitchen door, where the little girl was shyly waiting for them.

"Ain't you the young chap that beat in the bicycle slow race?" asked
Nancy, when she caught a sight of Tilly's face as he removed his hat.

The other two boys laughed, and the farmer, looking squarely at his
visitor, said:

"Well, I thought I'd seen you somewhere."

And then they settled down to breakfast in the happiest frame of mind,
evidently, that could be imagined. But all the time Old Tilly kept one
hand down at his side, a little out of sight, and the boys noticed that
he took upon his plate only such things as he could very easily manage
with one hand. The breakfast, for a hurried one, was very satisfactory
indeed. Jot and Kent ate with full appreciation of it.

But had they watched closely, they would have seen how Old Tilly's face
now flushed and then grew pale, and that occasionally he brought his
lips together as though striving to control himself.

But, all unmindful of what the boy was undergoing, Nancy presided
merrily over the table, and kept prompting Jim to fill up the plates as
they needed it, and pressed this and that upon the boys' attention.

"I don't feel as if I should ever want to go away again," she cried.
"It's so good to be at home. I've been through every room in the house
and taken a view of them all." And then she said laughingly, turning to
the boys, "Not that there are so very many of 'em, but they're all we've
got, you know. After breakfast we're going out to the barn, ain't we,
Polly?" she added.

But now Kent noticed that Jot's face had suddenly sobered; he was
looking at Old Tilly anxiously; he had seen. His hand come up from
beneath the table, and he was sure that the handkerchief was spotted
with red. "I say--Old Tilly--" Jot got to his feet hastily.

But Old Tilly's face was white, and he was swaying from side to side.
Old Tilly was fainting away.

CHAPTER VIII.

"I--I'm awake now. What's the matter? Who's sick?"

Old Tilly sat up dizzily. He had lost consciousness only for a moment,
but his face seemed to be growing whiter and whiter. Jot and Kent
hovered over him anxiously.

"You got