"Isn't it awful!" and Jess clasped her hands before her. "Can't anything be done for them? The children should be looked after at once, and someone should stay with Mrs. Denton."
"Oh, I guess the neighbors'll attend to that fer a while. Zeb'll find out, no doubt."
"Isn't the Orphan Home ready yet, daddy?"
"What Orphan Home?" and Abner looked keenly into his daughter's face. "What have ye heard about it?"
"Nothing much, only I thought they were building one at Glucom. There was some talk about it, wasn't there?"
"Talk! Sure there was talk. They've been talkin' about it fer years, but I guess that's as fer as it'll go. But there, I must git at them pertaters."
Abner gave a fleeting glance at his wife, picked up his hat and left the room.
"What is the matter with, daddy?" Jess asked, after her father had gone.
"In what way?" Mrs. Andrews enquired.
"I hardly know, except that he seems strange at times. The day I came home he got so excited when I picked up a copy of The Live Wire which had dropped from his pocket."