e other--O!
there's another thing. I never thought to tell you because it was hardly
worth remembering. On Major Garnet's suggestion, and so's to never get
it mixed up with the Company's lands--you know how carelessly our county
records are kept--I made a relinquishment to you of my half of your and
my joint interest in those sixty acres. I never supposed I was going to
make it one day the only piece of Widewood left you."

"Ah!" sighed the hearer, "half as many dollars would be far better for a
helpless widow."

John was scowling in another direction and did not see her pretty blush.
His voice deepened with indignation. "I'll give you double--right
here--now--cash!"

"Will you write the receipt for me to sign?" she sweetly asked.

He started up, wrote, paid, and smiled as he shut his empty purse. His
mother sighed in amiable pensiveness, saying, "This is a mystery to me,
my son."

"No more than it is to me," dryly responded John, angered by this new
sting from his old knowledge of her ways. It was her policy always to
mystify those who had the best right to understand her. "I shall try to
solve it," he added.

"I should rather not have you speak of it at once," she replied, almost
hurriedly. "You'll know why in a few days." Her blush came again. This
time John saw it and marvelled anew. He tossed himself back on his bed,
fevered with irritation.

"Mother"--he fiercely shifted his pillows and looked at the
ceiling--"the chief mystery to me is that you seem to care so little for
the loss of our lands!"

"I thought you told me that Major Garnet considered those sixty acres as
almost worthless."

"I believe he does."

Her voice became faint. "I would gladly explain, son, if you were only
well enough to hear me--patiently."

He lay rigidly still, with every nerve aching. His hands, locked under
his head, grew tight as he heard her rise and draw near. He shut his
eyes hard as she laid on his wrinkling forehead a cold kiss moistened
with a tear, and melted from the room.

"Mother!" he called, appeasingly, as the door was closing; but it
clicked to; she floated down the stairs. He turned his face into the
pillow and clenched his hands. By and by he turned again and exclaimed,
as from some long train of thought, "'Better off without Widewood than
with it,' am I? On my soul! I begin to believe it. But if you can see
that so clearly, O! my poor little unsuspicious mother, why can't you
even now understand that th