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128 "Why, Uncle Wesley!" cried the girl. "Where did you find Billy?" "I've adopted him for the time being, if not longer," replied Sinton. "Where did you get him?" queried the astonished Elnora. "Well, young woman," said Sinton, "Mr. Brownlee told me the history of your lunch box. It didn't seem so funny to me as it does to the rest of them; so I went to look up the father of Billy's family, and make him take care of them, or allow the law to do it for him. It will have to be the law." "He's deader than anything!" broke in Billy. "He can't ever take all the meat any more." "Billy!" gasped Elnora. "Never you mind!" said Sinton. "A child don't say such things about a father who loved and raised him right. When it happens, the father alone is to blame. You won't hear Billy talk like that about me when I cross over." "You don't mean you are going to take him to keep!" "I'll soon need help," said Sinton. "Billy will come in just about right ten years from now, and if I raise him I'll have him the way I want him." "But Aunt Margaret don't like boys," objected Elnora. "Well, she likes me, and I used to be a boy. Anyway, as I remember she has had her way about everything at our house ever since we were married. I am going