"You shet your mouth!" commanded his mother tartly. "You've made enough mess for once, Tom Petty. Your foolin' with that gal is the root of all the trouble. Comin' down here jes' now and telling me she was in Helmford's room----" "An' she was!" Sarah Petty overrode his voice, pursuing her topic with shrewdness: "Your Uncle Jonah is a masterful man after all. He ain't give way to his temper afore; but that ain't sayin' he ain't got none. He speaks like a man that means what he says an' says what he means. He may march off to Paulmouth to-morrow and make a will in Pearly's favor." "That would be a nice to-do," groaned Orrin. "I dunno," said Sarah, eyeing Tom wrathfully. "It's all along of this boy's actions. And it seems, Orrin Petty, that you brought Pearl home here jest to make trouble for us all. Course, the gal's long ago set her cap for Tom." The youth began to preen. It bolstered his conceit to hear his mother say this. "You know how girls are, Marm," he murmured. "An' I know how you be, Tom Petty," she rejoined grimly. "I found out to-night if never before. You're tangled up with this gal your father brought home against _my_ wishes," (Orrin stirred uneasily; this was a bare-faced falsehood) "and I don't see but we'll haf to make the best of it. Though I don't see what we're to say to your Uncles 'Poley and Perseus, _and_ their wives. The gal's sech a numbskull----" "She's a good looker," Orrin ventured. "Dress her up----" "Who says she's a good looker?" flared Sarah, who would never be too old to cavil at another woman's beauty. "She's a pink-faced little rat! But she's good enough, I guess, for this Tom Petty. He don't deserve nothin' better. And if this old tramp does give the dratted girl his money it needn't go out of the fam'ly." "Goshamighty! what's that you air sayin', Sarah?" demanded Orrin, while Tom stared at his mother in open-mouthed amazement. "If he's got any money," Sarah steadily pursued, "and he gives it to Pearl, we'll know for sure soon enough. You're detarmined to marry her, Tom----" "I dunno as I am," interrupted Tom, bound not to be driven. "You'll jest haf to marry her, I s'pose, it's gone so far," said his mother, licking her thin lips and her green eyes snapping. "And when you do, Uncle Jonah's money will be as good as yours. And this place when we die, an' such prop'ty as your pop an' I may have. So if Uncle Jonah ever brings up that old note of your grandpa's it won't amount to nothin'." "Goshamighty!" exclaimed the eager Orrin, again. "Jest like takin' money from one pants pocket and puttin' it in t'other." "Course we'll find out for sure, first," added Sarah, "if Uncle Jonah really has got anything worth willin' to anybody." "How you goin' to?" demanded Tom. "You ain't found out a thing so far, Marm. Only what he just said."