was, and it is going to be a long time
before he will be able to do much of anything. He has a wife and a child
or two, so I thought the best thing to do was to get them all down on
the stock farm. That's what kept me. I went down to Lexington with them
instead of coming straight home. He took one of the kiddies with him,
and the others will follow. That is a great little girl of his, mother.
She told me some of the greatest yarns about what she did in an
organization called the Girl Scouts. It certainly is interesting and a
wonderful thing for girls. Teaches them all sorts of things, you know.
Why, that child was more self-reliant than lots of the grown girls I
know. You must be sure to have Rosanna join it, mother. She needs it, I
feel sure. I scarcely know Rosanna, but her letters always had about as
much originality as a sheet of blank paper."

"I don't think that was Rosanna's fault," said Mrs. Horton. "I think you
will find her changed greatly."

"Well, however that may be, you let her join the Girl Scouts anyway.
Why, the fun they get out of it is worth everything. And in summer they
camp and put up jams and things, at least the group this youngster
belonged to did, and she is certainly great. Such a polite little
thing."

"Rosanna can invite her up here to see her," said Mrs. Horton.

"I guess you would think she was not in Rosanna's class," he said,
staring at his mother.

"Class?" said Mrs. Horton. "Class has nearly wrecked my life twice; now
we are going to pay some attention to worth and brains."

They were sitting in the library a little later, when John Culver
entered. He did not see Robert lounging on a divan in a dim corner of
the big room as he said, "Mrs. Horton, this check that you have given me
to date is made out to John Carver and of course I could not cash it."

"Isn't that the way you spell your name?" asked Mrs. Horton.

"Culver: John Winston Culver," said Culver. "J. W. Culver will do, of
course."

"John Winston Culver!" cried Robert, leaping from the divan in a manner
you wouldn't expect from a wounded soldier. "Not Culver, the inventor?"

"A little that way," laughed Culver, "but scarcely enough to be called
_the_ inventor. I wish I was!"

Robert was shaking him by the hand.

"Well, you are all right!" he said. "Why, our people in the foundry have
been looking for you all over the East. What are you doing here?"

"It is too long a story to tell you now," said Mr. Culver, "but I