"I am a-goin' to ask him straight, _has_ he," declared Sarah Petty. "It's for Pearl's own good I'll ask him. To protect her. He's promised her something and we're her guardeens. We must know if he means what he says and how much she is to be benefited by his will. And see to it he makes a will, into the bargain." "You'd better go easy--you'd better go easy," Orrin warned, although quite used to his wife's assertive ways and her ability to see ahead and, as she expressed it, "trim her sails accordin'." "If he died intes--intes----Wal, without makin' a will--his money'd come straight to you, Sarah Petty." "We don't know how long he's got to live," said his wife practically. "The Hands is tougher than pine knots. There ain't a thing the matter with him but rheumatics. He may live along for twenty year. "After all's said and done, he might not do a single solitary thing for me," confessed Sarah Petty. "I can git board money out of him, but that's about all. If he's taken a fancy to Pearly, however, he may be encouraged to do a lot for her--and for Tom. That's what we must look out for. Tom, you keep on bein' nice to your Uncle Jonah. P'r'aps he'll hand out more money to ye--though 'twon't do ye no good if ye don't put it in the bank, I must say." "And then it'll do the bankers good," said Tom with scorn. "What's money for?" "You'll find out one o' these days, you young spendthrift," said his father tartly. "I s'pose the gal would fall into your arms, Tom, if you asked her to marry you?" said Sarah Petty thoughtfully. Tom grinned broadly. "She uster like me. You see how she lent me that money. But since this Helmford feller's come here she's got crazy 'bout him. You can see that." "Nonsense!" exclaimed his mother. "You speak up nice to Pearly and she'll see you mean business. Of course she's always wanted ye," insisted the woman, determined to see the matter in no other light "But I don't want you to do anything, or say anything, to make Mr. Helmford mad. I'll speak to him about her bein' in his room. _That_ ain't decent. But I ain't goin' to lose a good boarder like him along of your foolishness, Tom Petty." Tom grunted a disavowal of any belief in his mother's way of putting it. He knew in his heart that Pearl had given him little reason of late to think she cared an iota for him. But he was too much his mother's son after all to admit this. He determined secretly to get Helmford out of the house. "Out of sight, out of mind" was Tom's doctrine. He believed, in his conceit, that he could make Pearl forget the man from the fish hatchery if the latter were gone. "All you've got to do is to salve these girls over, and talk to 'em pretty," mused Tom. "That'll fetch 'em ev'ry time." So the three Pettys sought their beds on this frosty night, all with thoughts to keep them awake. In other rooms in the house three other members of the household were likewise wakeful.