nswering, then laughed lightly as she
spoke. "You funny man--the magic of these mountains is getting in your
blood! Of course not--they are just a very happy family who know a
little more than most of us about what's really worth while in this
world. Now tell me about your own nieces--Isobel, and that madcap Gyp,
and little Tib." She knew well how fond John Westley was of these three
girls and to talk of them brought to her a breath of what she had known
at home before she had married Will Allan, the spring before.

"Oh, they're as bad as ever," he said in a tone that implied exactly the
opposite. "Isobel's growing more vain each day and Gyp more heedless,
and Tibby's going to spoil her digestion if her mother doesn't make her
eat less candy and more oatmeal. I haven't seen much of the youngsters
since I was sick."

"And Graham--poor boy, stuck in among those girls! He must be in long
trousers now."

"Graham can take care of himself," laughed the uncle. "Wish I had the
four of them here with me! I wanted to bring them along but Dr. Hewitt
said it'd be the surest way to the undertaker. They are a good sort
but--sometimes, I wonder----"

"You are an extraordinary uncle, to take the responsibility of your
nieces and nephew the way you do."

"I can't help it; I've lived with them since they were babies and it's
just as though they were my own. And their father's away so much that I
think their mother sort of depends on me. Sometimes I get a little
bothered--they're having the very best schooling and all the things
money can give young people and yet--there's a sort of shallowness
possessing them that makes them--well, not value the opportunities
they're having----"

"You talk like a veritable schoolmaster," laughed Mrs. Allan, teasingly.

"Have you forgotten that when Uncle Peter Westley left Highacres to the
Lincoln School it made me trustee of the school? That's almost as bad as
being the principal. And this year I'm going to take an active interest
in the school, too. The doctor says I must have a 'diversity' of
interests to offset the strain of making cement-mixers and I think to
rub up against two hundred boys and girls will fill the bill, don't you?
They've remodeled the building at Highacres this summer and completed
one addition. There are twenty acres of ground, too, for outdoor
athletics."

"What a wonderful gift," mused Mrs. Allan, recalling the pile of stone
and marble old Peter Westley had built in th