Mrs. Lathrop was quite speechless. Susan held the letter and began to regard it closely. It was quite a minute before another sound was made, then suddenly a light burst over the younger woman's face. "It's my dream. I told you so. It _was_ a sign, just as Mrs. Lupey said. He's coming back!" She looked toward Mrs. Lathrop, but Mrs. Lathrop still sat quite limp and gasping for breath. "Shall I open it and read it to you?" Susan then suggested. "Y--y--" began Mrs. Lathrop and could get no further. At that Susan promptly opened the letter. It was written on the paper of a Chicago hotel, and ran thus: "_Dear Mother_: "Years have passed by, and here I am on my way home again. I've been to the Klondike and am now rich and on my way home. I hope that you are well and safe at home. You'll be glad to see me home again, I know. How is everybody at home? How is Susan Clegg? I shall get home Saturday morning. "Your afft. son, "J. LATHROP, ESQ." That was all and surely it was quite enough. "Well, I declare!" Susan Clegg said, staring first at the letter and then at the mother. "Well, Mrs. Lathrop! Well, I declare. It _was_ a sign. You and me'll never doubt signs after _this_, I guess." Mrs. Lathrop made an effort to rally, but only succeeded in just feebly shaking her head. Susan continued to hold the letter in her hand and contemplate it. Another slow minute or two passed. But at last the wheels of life began to turn again, and that active mind, which grasped so much so readily, grasped this news, too. Miss Clegg ceased to view the letter and began to take action regarding it. "Did you notice what he says here, Mrs. Lathrop? He says he's rich. I don't know whether you noticed or not as I read, but he says he's rich. I wonder how rich he means!" Mrs. Lathrop opened and shut her eyes in a futile way that she had, but continued speechless. "Rich," repeated Miss Clegg, "and me dreaming of him last night; that's very curious, when you come to think of it, 'cause I'm rich, too. And I was dreaming of him! It doesn't make any difference my thinking he was a cat; I knew it was Jathrop, even if he was only a cat in a dream. Strange my dreaming of him that way! I can see him flying out of the window right now. He was one of those lanky, long cats that eat from dawn till dark and every time your back's turned and yet keep the neighbors saying you starve it. And to think it was Jathrop all the time! Thinking of me right that minute, probably. And he says, 'How's Susan Clegg?' And he's rich. I _do_ wonder what he'd call rich!" Susan paused and looked at her friend, but Mrs. Lathrop remained dumb.