"I'll soon get him well!" interposed Mrs. Wilson. "I'll go right down and bring up some breakfast."
"I can eat it, mother. I have had nothing except the bread and milk Bert brought me."
On Wednesday evening Bert closed his engagement with the farmer, and declined to continue it, though urged strongly to do so. He went home in a whirl of excitement, for Phineas Wilson had told him something which overwhelmed him with astonishment.
CHAPTER XXIII.
BERT FORMS A RESOLUTION.
"Mother," said Bert abruptly, as he entered the cottage at the close of his engagement with the farmer, "when did father die?"
Mrs. Barton sank into a chair, and looked searchingly in her son's face.
"Why—do—you—ask?" she said slowly.