have to be the law."

"He's deader than anything!" broke in Billy. "He can't ever take all the
meat any more."

"Billy!" gasped Elnora.

"Never you mind!" said Sinton. "A child doesn't say such things about a
father who loved and raised him right. When it happens, the father alone
is to blame. You won't hear Billy talk like that about me when I cross
over."

"You don't mean you are going to take him to keep!"

"I'll soon need help," said Wesley. "Billy will come in just about right
ten years from now, and if I raise him I'll have him the way I want
him."

"But Aunt Margaret doesn't like boys," objected Elnora.

"Well, she likes me, and I used to be a boy. Anyway, as I remember
she has had her way about everything at our house ever since we were
married. I am going to please myself about Billy. Hasn't she always done
just as she chose so far as you know? Honest, Elnora!"

"Honest!" replied Elnora. "You are beautiful to all of us, Uncle Wesley;
but Aunt Margaret won't like Billy. She won't want him in her home."

"In our home," corrected Wesley.