"Get out of my kitchen," she commanded. She was afraid of no tramps, but there was something in the clear gaze of this young man which frightened her. But he was clean and sober, and he looked like some one whom she knew. "What do you want?" she asked in a more friendly tone. "Who are you?" asked the stranger. "I am Mrs. Jacob Kalb, and this is my house." "Where--" said the young man, and Mrs. Kalb never told the story afterwards without crying--"where is my mother?" "Your mother!" she repeated. She stared at him with open mouth. Then she said slowly, "It is William Wenner that you look like." "But where," said the young man again, "is my mother? And my father?" Mrs. Kalb's shawl dropped slowly to the ground. "Don't you _know_?" "I don't know anything," said the young man. "I have been away for three years. I have had no letters for two years, until last week. Then I found one in Seattle. I--" He drew Sarah's poor, little, incoherent letter from his pocket. "I couldn't make out what my little sister meant. She says nothing about my mother or my father." Mrs. Kalb was after all a very different person from her husband. She came round to where the young man was standing and made him sit down, and put a kind hand on his shoulder, while she told him. "And you came now just in time," she sobbed. "The little ones shall go to Uncle Daniel and Aunt Mena, and he will take the farm. The fences are down already, and he is to be guardian. He went this morning to town to get the papers. He and Jacob went. He said we were to live here. But I wouldn't 'a' come, only somebody would have to live here, and--" The young man was upon his feet. "Where is my little sister?" "By Aunt 'Liza. And Albert is there, and Ellie and Weezy are at school." Then she followed him to the door. "I won't be here any more when you come back. And I will have everything cleaned up, and I will leave some pies." If she had doubted his identity, she would have been convinced by the quick turn which he made beyond the lilac-bushes, in order to take the shortest cut across the fields. She saw him stop for an instant to stare at the long, unbroken slope, which stretched clear to Uncle Daniel's door, then he hurried on. Aunt Eliza was frightened almost out of her wits. He did not speak to her or greet her, except to say, "Where is my little sister?" "William!" screamed Aunt 'Liza. "Ach, William, did you come home?" "Where is my little sister?" He had always been fond of Aunt Eliza, and she had always been kind to him. But now there was no room in his heart for anything but grief and resentment and anxiety. "She is--ach, I don't know where she is. She went this long time home. But Jacob Kalb lives now at your house. Ellie and Weezy are at school, perhaps she went to them. She is very for the teacher. Perhaps--Here is your little brother, William. Here is Albert. He is--he is--" And Aunt 'Liza burst into tears. William stooped to kiss him, his lips trembling.