have the future he planned for you. He left you, my boy, something better
than money--a heritage of clean, noble blood and character. You aren't
old enough just yet to know all that that means, but some day you will
be truly thankful."

"You are right--always right; but you know what I mean, don't you? You
have never told me all about him, have you, mother? Won't you tell me
now? I never wanted to know so badly as I do tonight. He seems to come
near to me sometimes, even if I can't see him, and I want to know more
about him."

The fire burned low; the storm had increased in its fury; it seemed as if
each gust would lift the house from its foundations. Still, to these two,
opening their hearts to each other in the kindly glow of the firelight,
the storm was forgotten.

After a pause she began softly and very slowly to tell the story.

"Your father was a noble man, Willis, such as I am sure you will be if
you are spared to live. His boyhood I do not know much about, only that
it was spent on his father's farm. He went to Kalamazoo for his
schooling, and it was there that I first met him. He worked hard, saved
his money, and went to Ann Arbor for his college work. He was ambitious
to become a great engineer, and was always tinkering at some kind of a
machine. He used to joke with me about becoming a great inventor, and
after we were married he did try his hand at a patent coupler and a
back-firing device for a gas engine. He was just like you, my boy, always
dreaming and seeing things in the out-of-doors. I can remember the
delight he found in rising early on summer mornings to search for
caterpillars, moths, and worms in the nearby woods, and he would put a