from July until October."

"You're crazy."

"Wait and see."

"I know what I'll see," was the sharp retort. "I shall see all those
puppies kicking up their heels and racing off to Provincetown, and Mr.
Crowninshield insisting that you either find them and bring them back
or pay him what they cost him."

"Don't you believe it."

"That is what will happen," was the solemn prophecy.

"But you were keen for me to take the job."

"That was before I knew what the little rats were worth."

"You just thought it was a cheap sort of a position and that I was to
race round and make it pleasant for a lot of ordinary curs, didn't
you?" interrogated the lad with mock indignation.

In spite of herself his mother smiled.

"Well, you see you were wrong," went on Walter. "It is not that sort
of thing at all. It is a job for a trustworthy man, Jerry Thomas said,
and will bring in good wages."

"It ought to," replied his mother sarcastically, "if a person must
spend every day for three months sitting with his eyes glued on those
mites watching every breath they draw."

"It isn't just days, Mother; I'd have to be there nights as well."

"_What!_"

"That's what Jerry told me. I'd have to sleep on the place. Mr.
Crowninshield wants some one there all the time."

"But Walter----!" Mrs. King broke off in dismay.

"I know that would mean leaving you alone now that Bob has a regular
position at the Seaver Bay Wireless station. Still, why should you
mind? I have always been gone all day, anyhow; and at night I sleep so
soundly that you yourself have often said burglars might carry away
the bed from under me and I not know it."

"You are not much protection, that's a fact," confessed Mrs. King.
"Fortunately, though, I am not a timid person. It is not that I am
afraid to stay here alone. My chief objection is that it seems foolish
to run a great house like this simply for myself."

"Couldn't you get some one to come and keep you company?"

"Who, I should like to know?"

"Why--why--well, I haven't thought about it. Of course there's Aunt
Marcia King."

"Mercy on us!" exclaimed his mother, instantly flaring up. "I'd rather
see the evil one himself put in an appearance than your Aunt Marcia.
Of all the fault-finding, critical, sharp-tongued creatures in the
world she is the worst. Why, I'd let burglars carry away every stick
and stone I possess and myself thrown in before I would ask her here
to board."

"My, Mother! I'd no