“You are not afraid of having such a disagreeable neighbor?” Parker gave a little amused smile. “Whom do you mean, you or your mother?” Agnes smiled, too. “So you do count on our being your neighbors in spite of what Hump Muirhead says?” “I certainly do.” “But you must not take any risks on our account,” Mrs. Kennedy was quick to say. “But he saved Honey’s life,” Agnes remarked. “You mean Jimmy O’Neill saved Honey.” “But you saved both. Doesn’t Hump Muirhead know that?” “What a disrespectful way to speak of your uncle,” laughed Parker. “What will your mother think?” “That I’ve neither wish nor right to show him the respect he does not command. But doesn’t he know about your saving Honey?” she persisted. “No, if you call it that.” “I do. Oh, mother--” she checked herself; she would not for the world praise him for his bravery lest one or the other should suspect how pleased she was to do it. “Did you see Honey, the dear baby?” she asked, giving a turn to the subject. “No, I saw only the man himself; I met him on the road.” “Do you know, I have a baby brother, only a little younger than Honey, and I had never seen him before mother came.” “I am glad you have some one to fill Honey’s place, and some one from whom you will not have to part. She was very loath to give up her little cousin,” he told Mrs. Kennedy. “Agnes always was a great hand for the little ones,” Mrs. Kennedy replied. “And you must have missed her sadly when she left you for this raw country.” “I missed her, yes.” The mother’s eyes rested fondly on the girl, and Parker’s followed the look. He wondered if the mother noted how becoming was that soft blue and how the plain little gown brought out the color of the girl’s eyes. “What did you say about the will?” Agnes asked, eager for more information. “I told him that the will would be entered for probate, and that your mother would claim her own.” “What did he say to that?” “He insisted that he must see the will and that he would take no man’s word for it. I promised him that I would bring it with me for his satisfaction, and Jimmy has intrusted it to me. It will be all right in time. I shall not show it to him except in the presence of witnesses. There may be some trouble about getting possession, for Muirhead, on account of his long residence out here, has been able to gather about him rather a lawless set of followers, and they may try to do something to prevent peaceable possession; but in the end there must be enough of your friends to see justice done. You have not come to a very law-abiding neighborhood, so far as these backwoodsmen are concerned, Mrs. Kennedy, but the country is settling up very fast, and there are enough men of good standing here now who will not allow any irregularities.”