self to pieces and tell me. If it
isn't clothes, what is it?"

"It's books and tuition. Over twenty dollars in all."

"Humph! First time I ever knew you to be stumped by twenty dollars,
Elnora," said Sinton, patting her hand.

"It's the first time you ever knew me to want money," answered Elnora.
"This is different from anything that ever happened to me. Oh, how can I
get it, Uncle Wesley?"

"Drive to town with me in the morning and I'll draw it from the bank for
you. I owe you every cent of it."

"You know you don't owe me a penny, and I wouldn't touch one from you,
unless I really could earn it. For anything that's past I owe you and
Aunt Margaret for all the home life and love I've ever known. I know how
you work, and I'll not take your money."

"Just a loan, Elnora, just a loan for a little while until you can earn
it. You can be proud with all the rest of the world, but there are no
secrets between us, are there, Elnora?"

"No," said Elnora, "there are none. You and Aunt Margaret have given me
all the love there has been in my life. That is the one reason above all
others why you shall not give me charity. Hand me money because you find
me crying for it! This isn't the first time this old trail has known
tears and heartache. All of us know that story. Freckles stuck to what
he undertook and won out. I stick, too. When Duncan moved away he gave
me all Freckles left in the swamp, and as I have inherited his property
maybe his luck will come with it. I won't touch your money, but I'll
win some way. First, I'm going home and try mother. It's just possible
I could find second-hand books, and perhaps all the tuition need not
be paid at once. Maybe they would accept it quarterly. But oh, Uncle
Wesley, you and Aunt Margaret keep on loving me! I'm so lonely, and no
one else cares!"

Wesley Sinton's jaws met with a click. He swallowed hard on bitter words
and changed what he would have liked to say three times before it became
articulate.

"Elnora," he said at last, "if it hadn't been for one thing I'd have
tried to take legal steps to make you ours when you were three years
old. Maggie said then it wasn't any use, but I've always held on. You
see, I was the first man there, honey, and there are things you see,
that you can't ever make anybody else understand. She loved him Elnora,
she just made an idol of him. There was that oozy green hole, with the
thick scum broke, and two or three big bubbles slowly rising th