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"What!" he roared. "You dare that to my face! Some more of Deforrest's influence, I suppose. Nice family I married into, I must say." Helen got up from her chair. The one thing that stirred her quickest was an attack upon her brother. "Ebenezer Waldstricker, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Forrie minds his own business and you should mind yours."
Waldstricker looked keenly from the speaker to her husband. But Frederick had again put on his mask of apathetic indifference and answered his wife's gibe only by a shrug of his shoulders. Noting her brother's scowling face, she went on maliciously. "You'd better keep away from the lake place, my dear husband, or you'll have both Ebbie and Forrie after you."
The man could scarcely get that beloved name from between his lips. "Yes, Tessibel is my mummy," said the boy. "You know my mummy, and my Uncle Forrie?" "Yes," assented Frederick, sitting down. "Come here and let me tell you all about your mother's beautiful curls." Boy hitched nearer the tall stranger. He was drawn in some unknown way toward this man whose arms were out-held to him.
"Why didn't you come, then?" demanded Boy. "I was away," said Frederick. "My Uncle Forrie goes away, too. When he came home yesterday, he brought me a beautiful engine it goes on wheels. I love my Uncle Forrie." "Could you love me, dear?" breathed Frederick. "Yes, oh, yes. I love everybody. God, too. So does Mummy. And Deacon, he's my owl, and An " Boy's lips closed on the nearly spoken word.
"I'd have married Tessibel Skinner long ago, if she'd consented." "Forrie, dear, you wouldn't! You couldn't! Especially now! Oh, darling, you're all I've got in the world.... Can't you see it would break my heart?" "You needn't worry about it, sister mine." A sad shake of his head emphasized his reply. "Tess won't marry me. She knows I love her and want to care for her, but she won't let me.
"Deforrest, dear, oh, don't go out tonight! Stay and let Ebenezer tell you about it, do please! The church has done all it could it must be all right if the church did it, Forrie." Then Young's wrath broke loose.... "All right? All right?" he thundered. "The church has done all it can, eh? Well, by God!" He turned a livid face from one to the other. "What a cursed outrage!"
I want to gather some flowers for Uncle Forrie." Andy was studying at a table, when the door opened and the dark-faced boy popped into the room. "Mummy says wash Boy's face and put on clean blouse," said he. "Please, Andy. I forgot to say 'please'!" Andy pushed back his chair and waddled to the child. The dwarf was the same ungainly figure that had moved about the hut four years before.
Forrie, don't you think " There was something in her brother's stricken face that broke off her question. "Don't I think what, dear?" He got up and resumed his restless pacing up and down. "Oh, I want you to be happy. Couldn't you possibly forget you've loved her?" "No, I can't," and he came to a standstill in front of her.
"I don't know how much she'll let me do, but I am going to help her in spite of herself. That shack by the lake is an awful place. I swear I'll give her decent surroundings and a chance to live.... I'm going down today." "But, Forrie," his sister objected, "I want you to come home with me to dinner.
Didn't He get Daddy Skinner out of Auburn and He kept Andy with me in the shanty till we came to you? Oh, I know He'll help you and me, Uncle Forrie." The loving appellation, taught Boy when first he could lisp, roused the man as perhaps nothing else would have done. The three of them still needed him, needed him more than ever.
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