charge you a quarter. That's the regular fare by stage."

"All right! charge it if you like," rejoined Andy, smiling. "Are your
folks all well?"

"Oh, yes, especially Lily. You and she are great friends, I believe."

"Oh, yes," answered Andy, with a smile.

"She thinks a good deal more of you than she does of me."

"Girls don't generally appreciate their brothers, I believe. If I had a
sister, I presume she would like you better than me."

Roland dropped Andy at his father's gate.

It may be said here that Mr. Grant owned a farm of fifty acres, that
yielded him a comfortable living when supplemented by the interest on
three thousand dollars invested in government bonds. On the farm was a
house of moderate size which had always been a pleasant home to Andy and
his little brother Robert, generally called Robbie.

Andy opened the gate and walked up to the front door, valise in hand.

The house and everything about it seemed just as it did when he left at
the beginning of the school term. But Andy looked at them with different
eyes.

Then he had been in good spirits, eager to return to his school work.
Now something had happened, he did not yet know what.