ay pa back in a few weeks, and give him big interest for
the use of the money.

"Pa set quite a store by Uncle Isaac, and so he let him have th'
money that ought to have gone to pay off th' mortgage. And then
things went wrong. Uncle Isaac died before he could pay pa back th'
money, and from then on things went from bad to worse, until now
we're goin' to lose th' farm."

"But my dear man!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell, "if your uncle owed your
father money, and your father had a note, or any paper to prove his
claim, he could collect from your uncle's estate."

"That's th' trouble," said Sandy. "There wasn't no estate."

"But he must have left something! What became of the money he got
from your father?"

"Nobody knew. You see poor Uncle Isaac went crazy before he died, and
was put in th' asylum. In fact, that's where he died. He was clean
out of his mind."

"But did you try to find what he had done with the money? I should
have thought you could do that."

"We did try, and even got a lawyer to try," replied Sandy. "But it
was no use. Uncle Isaac would only laugh at us. Poor fellow, he meant
all right, but his head give way. He wouldn't have cheated pa for the
world. It was jest an accident--that's all."

"You see he was near our threshing machine one day when there was an
accident. Somethin' broke and Uncle Isaac was hit on th' head. Not
hard enough to kill him, but it made him forget things, and he died
that way."

"But couldn't you tell from the papers he left where he had invested
the money--his own, as well as your father's?"

"That's th' odd part of it. We couldn't find a scrap of paper, nor a
dollar, among his things. You see Uncle Isaac was queer, even before
he went crazy. He didn't believe in banks, and he used to hide his
papers and money in all sorts of out-of-the-way places. He lived all
alone--an old bachelor."

"Did you search for his things?" asked Mr. Pertell, who was much
impressed by Sandy's story.

"Oh, yes! We searched all over!" exclaimed Sandy. "But we couldn't
find a thing. It's too bad, for Uncle Isaac never would have done it
for th' world, if he had been in his right mind."

"No, I suppose not," agreed Mr. Pertell. "Have you any papers to show
that your father let him have the money?"

"Oh, yes, we've got a note. But it's no good. Uncle Isaac is dead,
and he didn't leave nothin'. We've searched all over, and couldn't
find a thing. No, I reckon th' only thing to do is to lose the fa