ame in, accompanied by a
sweet-faced, motherly lady.

Phil stood waiting, with just a little reserve, but there was to be no
waiting.

The big, kindly-faced man ran to his boy and hugged him in his arms.
He then held him out from him, gazed on his face for a long time, then
hugged him again.

"And I almost believed what they told me in the East. Oh, my boy! As
if my own boy could be anything but straight, and clean, and honest!"

And there, in the little private room, Phil made his peace with the
dear old lady he had wronged so long ago in his boyish idea of
chivalry to his own departed mother.

One hour, two hours, three hours passed like so many seconds, as he
told them of all his wanderings, his hardships, his disappointments,
his ambitions and his ultimate success.

When he told them of how he had suffered five years in prison for
Brenchfield because of the kindness Brenchfield's father and mother
had shown in caring for him, in giving him a home and paying for his
education--his old father's anger was almost at white heat.

"Paying, did you say, boy? By the Lord Harry!--not a cent did they
ever pay for you. Why, boy!--it was you who kept them,--through me."

"That's what I've felt myself of late," said Phil, "but at that time I
thought differently."

"For shame, Phil! Do you think I would let anyone provide for my boy,
no matter where he might be, or what he might be? When you would not
have the money I sent, I sent it to them regularly for your
upkeep;--and much more besides, for they always had something to tell
me of what you needed extra. I doubled the allowance when they sent
you to college. Yes!--and it was three years after you had gone West
before I knew of it, and then only through the death of Brenchfield's
father and an inquiry I made through a firm of lawyers.

"We planned, not once but a hundred times, to go ourselves to
Campbeltown in search of you. But I couldn't get away from my business
affairs in Texas and your mother was too ill to travel alone. Last
winter, however, I sold all my interests for cash, your mother made a
great recovery, and we came away for a double purpose. First, to find
you, if we could; next, to see if we should like to make a home out
here, for we had heard much about this part of the country.

"For years Margery has pined her heart out for her old playmate, until
she threatened to come herself if I would not come with her. But,
Phil, boy!--there was little need