Aunt Clara telegraphed this morning, but it wasn't delivered." "How long they goin' to stay ?" "I don't know." Penrod ceased to rub his shining face, and thoughtfully tossed the towel through the bathroom door.

"Uncle John won't try to make 'em come back home, I guess, will he ?" (Uncle John was Aunt Clara's husband, a successful manufacturer of stoves, and his lifelong regret was that he had not entered the Baptist ministry.) "He'll let 'em stay here quietly, won't he ?" "What ARE you talking about ?" demanded Margaret, turning from her mirror.

"Uncle John sent them here.

Why shouldn't he let them stay ?" Penrod looked crestfallen.

"Then he hasn't taken to drink ?" "Certainly not!" She emphasized the denial with a pretty peal of soprano laughter.
"Then why," asked her brother gloomily, "why did Aunt Clara look so worried when she got here ?" "Good gracious! Don't people worry about anything except somebody's drinking?
Where did you get such an idea ?" "Well," he persisted, "you don't KNOW it ain't that." She laughed again, wholeheartedly.