"Aileen, you don't sing as much as you did a while ago--what's the matter?" he asked her one day in October when she joined him to go up street after supper on an errand. "Matter?--I've sung out for one while; I'm taking a rest-cure with my voice, Tave." "It ain't the kind of rest-cure that'll agree with you, nor I guess any of us at Champo. There ain't no trouble with her that's bothering you?" He pointed with a backward jerk of his thumb to the house. "No." "She's acted mad ever since I told her Champney had to go back that night and tend to business; guess she'd set her heart on his making a match on that yachting cruise--well, 't would be all in the family, seeing there's Champney blood in the Van Ostends, good blood too,--there's no better," he added emphatically. "Oh, Tave, you're always blowing the Champneys' horn--" "And why shouldn't I?"--he was decidedly nettled. "The Champneys are my folks, my townspeople, the founders of this town, and their interests have always been mine--why shouldn't I speak up for 'em, I'd like to know? You won't find no better blood in the United States than the Champneys'." Aileen made no reply; she was looking up the street to Poggi's fruit stall, where beneath a street light she saw a crowd of men from the quarries. "Romanzo said there was some trouble in the sheds--do you know what it is?" she asked. "No, I can't get at the rights of it; they didn't get paid off last week, so Romanzo told me last night, but he said Champney telegraphed he'd fix it all right in another week. He says dollars are scarce just at this time--crops moving, you know, and market dull." She laughed a little scornfully. "You seem to think Mr. Googe can fix everything all right, Tave." "Champney's no fool; he's 'bout as interested in this home work as anybody, and if he says it'll be all right, you may bet your life it will be--There's Jo Quimber coming; p'raps he's heard something and can tell us." "What's that crowd up to, Uncle Jo?" said Aileen, linking her arm in the old man's and making him right about face to walk on with them. "Talkin' a strike. I heerd 'em usin' Champ's name mighty free, Tave, just now--guess he'd better come home an' calm 'em down some, or there'll be music in the air thet this town never danced to yet. By A. J., it riles me clear through to hear 'em!" "You can't blame them for wanting their pay, Uncle Jo." There was a challenge in the girl's voice which Uncle Jo immediately accepted.