“Must have been their mother, then,” declared Bud, “because from all I’ve heard about their dad he’s a pretty poor stick; bad enough while his wife was living, but a heap worse since he was left alone.”
“All but this boy here were too young to know anything about their mother when she left them,” observed Hugh. “So I imagine we’ll have to look somewhere else to see where they’ve been influenced.”
“Now I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you were right there, Hugh,” admitted Don, “and that it was Peter’s work.”
“He struck me as an uncommon sort of a boy,” continued Hugh. “He certainly was faithful to his trust with these kids.”
“What do you suppose will become of them all?” questioned Bud.
“Oh! Mrs. Heffner will be only too glad to look after them until their dad can come after them,” Hugh informed him.
“What a shock the man will get if he makes his way this morning to his home and finds it a heap of ashes,” suggested Jack.
“He’ll think his babies have all perished there,” added Bud. “It’ll serve him right. A shock like that might set him to thinking, and to reform. I can remember that years ago before he took to drink Alec Barger used to be reckoned a fine-looking man, with a future before him. It isn’t too late yet for him to undo the past if only he sets his foot down hard on his failings.”
“I wonder what the damage done by this forest fire has been?” queried Don.
“When they go to count up,” replied Hugh, “there will be a pretty heavy toll to pay in the way of farms ruined and wood burned. Plenty of them may have escaped, something like Mrs. Heffner’s place did, but others went up in smoke.”