"Aunt Achsa, it doesn't matter what one's like on the outside!" Now Sidney floundered for the second time in one day under the pressure of her own thoughts. "I mean--Lav can do anything he wants to do, anyway. And he's working hard reading and studying and some day, after awhile, he'll go away somewhere and study more--" "Sidney Romley, you're _crazy_!" cried Aunt Achsa, in a quavering voice. "Go away! How _can_ he go away when we ain't even the money to go 'sfar as Orleans. And he ain't plannin' to go on anyone's _charity_!" "Oh, I don't mean he's going away _soon_! I shouldn't have told anyway for Lav told me as a secret. But I thought maybe it would make you happier knowing he had great ambitions. And he'll tell you sometime himself." When Aunt Achsa spoke it was in a thin, grieved voice. "It's what I didn't want him to ever take into his head. Goin' off somewhere--alone. For I'm too old to go with him and he'll need me!" "Oh I wouldn't have told you if I'd thought it would make you unhappy. He won't go for a long time, Aunt Achsa. And when he does he'll come back real often." Now Aunt Achsa sat so still that Sidney thought she had consoled her. But Aunt Achsa was facing in her own way this at which Sidney had hinted, drawing for it from that courage of hers that had not yet been exhausted. Well, if it was best for Lavender some day to go away she'd send him away with a smile even though the heart that had taken him, a wee baby, from the dying mother did burst with loneliness. Besides, even if Lavender went away she could go on praying to the Lord to keep him "happy"--no distance could keep her from doing that! "It's like as not his plans in his head that's makin' him act so quiet like and short-spoken. And last night he didn't sleep in his bed at all!" "Why, Aunt Achsa, where _was_ he?" gasped Sidney, really startled. "I don't know, dearie. He used to take to spells like that when he was little. But lately he's got over them. I followed him once and I found him out in the sand dunes lying flat on his face cryin' awful--out loud and beatin' his arms. I let him be. I stole home and I never let on I knew. When he came back all white lookin' I had a nice cake ready--roll jell, his favorite." "Do--do you think he was out in the sand dunes--last night?" "I don't know. He come in about nine o'clock, awful quiet and I didn't ask him anything, but I just set his breakfast before him as though the morning wa'n't half over. And then he went off again and I ain't seen him sense. I thought mebbe it was these folks of Mr. Dugald's--" "What do you mean, Aunt Achsa?" But Sidney knew what she meant. "Like as not Lav's plain jealous. Mr. Dugald hasn't had any time for anything but toting this Pola round everywhere and Lav notices it. He hasn't any right to be jealous as I can see for Miss Pola is Mr. Dugald's own cousin, but Lav thinks the sun rises and sets in Mr. Dugald. And like as not he misses you--"