Hiram noted all the old mail said, and the last phrase enlightened him immensely as to why Old Lem Camp was so “queer.” That was the trouble on the old man's mind—the trouble that had stifled him, and made him appear “half cracked” as the boarding-house jester and Peebles had said.
Lem Camp, too old to ever get another job in the city, had for five years been worrying from day to day about his bare existence. And evidently he saw that bogie of the superannuated disappearing in the distance.
After the truck driver had gone to bed, and Camp himself, and Sister had fallen asleep over the last of the dish-wiping, Mother Atterson confided in Hiram, to a degree.
“Now, this gal can be made useful. She can help me in the house, and she can help outside, too.
“She's a poor, unfortunate creature—I know and humbly is no name for her looks! But mebbe we can send her to the school nearby, and she ought to get some color in her face if she's out o' doors some—and some flesh on her skinny body.
“I don't know as I could get along without Sister,” ruminated Mother Atterson, shaking her head.
“And as for Lem Camp—bless you! he won't eat more'n a fly, and who else would give him houseroom? Why, Hiram, I just had to bring him with me. If I hadn't, I'd felt just as conscience-stricken as though I'd moved and left a cat behind in an empty house!”
CHAPTER XIV. GETTING IN THE EARLY CROPS
Mother Atterson had breakfast the next morning by lamplight, because the truckman wanted to make an early start.