"
"I see." Quite soberly, this time.
The boy slid off the mare and walked beside the little man, holding
the bridle over his arm. They did not speak again for some moments.
Finally the stranger asked:
"Are Jane's sisters living--Julia and Violet?"
"I don't know. But there are two of her nieces at Elmhurst."
"Ha! Who are they?"
"Girls," with bitterness. "I haven't seen them."
The stranger whistled.
"Don't like girls, I take it?"
"No; I hate them."
Another long pause. Then the boy suddenly turned questioner.
"You know Aunt--Miss Merrick, sir?"
"I used to, when we were both younger."
"Any relation, sir?"
"Just a brother, that's all."
Kenneth stopped short, and the mare stopped, and the little man, with
a whimsical smile at the boy's astonishment, also stopped.
"I didn't know she had a brother, sir--that is, living."
"She had two; but Will's dead, years ago, I'm told. I'm the other."
"John Merrick?"
"That's me. I went west a long time ago; before you were born, I
guess. We don't get much news on the coast, so I sort of lost track of
the folks back east, and I reckon they lost track of me, for the same
reason.
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