MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT. Pen clung to Uncle Denny with a breathless sob. She had not realized how heavy her burden was until Uncle Denny had come to share it. "Uncle Denny! You didn't answer my telegram and I didn't dare hope you would get here." "Where is Jim, Penny, and how is me boy?" "I'll take you to him now. He has no idea of your coming. Bill, we will walk. Take the trunk on up to Mr. Manning's house, will you?" "I was afraid 'twould get out and I knew he'd never stand for me coming out to help. That's why I sent you no word," said Uncle Denny, beginning to puff up the trail beside Pen. "He's just the same old Jim," said Pen, "but under a terrific strain just now, of course. You can understand from my letters just how great that is." "And Sara?" asked Uncle Denny. "Not so well," replied Pen. "He is very quiet, these days. There is the first glimpse of the dam, Uncle Denny." Uncle Denny stopped and wiped the sweat out of his eyes with his silk handkerchief. He gazed in silence for a moment at the mammoth foundations, over which the workmen ran like ants. "'Twas but a hole in the ground when I last saw it," he said. "Pen, it's so big you can't compass it in your mind. And they are pecking at me boy while he builds mountains!" "There he is!" exclaimed Pen, pointing to the tower foot. "It is! It's Still Jim! Is me collar entirely wilted?" Pen laughed. "Uncle Denny, you're as fussed as a girl at meeting her sweetheart! You look beautiful and you know it. There! He sees us!" Uncle Denny lost a little of his color and stood still. Jim came striding down the road. His eyes were black with feeling. Without a word he threw his arms around Uncle Dennis and hugged that rotund person off his feet. "Still Jim, me boy!" cried Uncle Denny. "I've come out to lick the world for ye!" Jim loosened his bear hug and stepped back. His smile was brilliant. "Uncle Denny, you look like a tailor's ad! Doesn't he, little Penelope?" There was something in Jim's voice as he spoke Pen's name that Michael Dennis understood as clearly as if Jim had shouted his feeling for Pen in his ear. "I'm starving to death," he said hastily. "Take me home, Still. Come along, Pen." Mrs. Flynn was surveying the trunk as it stood on end in the living room. She was talking rapidly to herself and as the three came up on the porch she cried: "I said 'twas you, Mr. Dennis! I told myself fifty times 'twas your trunk and still myself kept contradicting me. You are as handsome as a Donegal dude. Leave me out to the kitchen till I get an early supper!" After supper Jim and Dennis sat for a short time over their pipes before Jim left for some office work. "Tell me what to do first, Still," said Uncle Denny, "and I'll start a campaign against Fleckenstein that'll turn the valley upside down. That's what I came out for. I'll fix them, the jackals!"