but
that is what Mr. Coulter is going to do--ask whole families. Gee, but
it makes me sore!"

"If your father had lived we would have been there," said the boy's
mother sadly. "Your father used to be very good friends with old Mr.
Coulter and he would have seen to it that none of this household was
left out. But Mr. John we never knew. He was always away
studying--first at school, then at college, and then in Europe. Later
he started in to be a lawyer in New York and but for the war and his
father's death he'd most likely be doing that now. But when the old
gentleman died Mr. John gave up everything else and came home to take
his place in the firm as his father had wished he should. Folks say
that in spite of not caring much for the mills at first he has
persisted at his job until he has become genuinely interested in them.
I honor him for it, too, for a business life wasn't his real choice. Of
course being away so much as he has he is little known among the mill
people yet; but evidently he means to settle down here and is anxious
to get better acquainted. This wedding party shows that."

"Well, there are some he won't get acquainted with," lamented Carl.

"If you mean us I reckon he can worry along without," Mrs. McGregor
retorted, with a twinkle in her eye. "He's managed to up to now."

"We're just as good as anybody else," her son blazed.

"Undoubtedly we are," was the good-humored answer. "Nevertheless we
won't be missed in a crowd like that."

"Don't you _want_ to go to the party, Ma?"

"Why, to tell the truth, I haven't had time to think much about it,
sonny--that is, not to be disappointed. I'm not pretending, though,
that so many parties come my way that a fine one such as this wouldn't
be a treat. I can't remember the day I've been to anything of the
sort. It's a quarter of a century or more, certainly--not since I was
a girl and went to the balls the gentry gave in Scotland."

"Oh, I do so wish we were going to Mr. Coulter's," Carl repeated.

"I'll not deny I'd like to," confessed his mother a bit wistfully.
"Still, were we to go what a stew we'd be in! It would mean days of
washing and ironing; new neckties and maybe shoes for you boys; and
hair ribbons and folderols for Mary and Nell. Before we were all
properly equipped it would cost a pretty penny. We'd have no right to
go without looking decent and being a credit to your father and to Mr.
Coulter who was good enough to ask us. So, you see, ther