Green Valley folks."

At that Cynthia's husband cried out. But Joshua Churchill did not stay
to argue. He went away and never came back. He wanted of course to go
back to Green Valley. But he could not bear to live alone in the big
house where he had once been so happy. So he went instead into exile.
And now he was dying in California.

As for Cynthia's husband, he discovered when it was too late to do any
good that while he had been saving the souls and the children of alien
women and men he had let the woman who was dearer to him than life die
slowly and unnoticed. Saints have always done that and they always
will.

Joshua Churchill meant to stay alive long enough to explain the
shortcomings of both saints and sinners to the boy who was the last of
the Churchills. He had half a mind to exact a promise from the boy.
He meant too to tell him a long and a rather strange story and implore
him to beware of a number of things.

But when Cynthia's son,--tall, bronzed and serene, smiled down on the
old man who even in death had the look of a master, the warnings, the
bitterness melted away and Joshua Churchill smiled back and sighed
gratefully.

"Well, son,--I don't know as that saint father of yours and your
sinning granddad made such a mess of things after all. It's something
to give the world a man. Go back home to Green Valley and marry a
Green Valley girl."