"This is your home, Budd, and my home, now--inexpressibly dear, because of what my boy has here proved himself to be."
Later on, and when reclining in an easy-chair beside the sitting-room fire, he heard in detail the experiences through which the lads had passed. The young partners sat where he could look them both full in the face. Possibly their strong likeness to each other may have suggested the question, for he abruptly asked:
"Judd, what is your father's name?"
"Silas Torr Floyd," answered the wondering boy.
"And your mother's?"
"Helen Budd, before she was married," replied Judd. "That is one reason why I thought Budd's name so funny when I first heard it."
"You are, then, cousins," was Mr. Boyd's astonishing declaration.
"How do you make that out, sir?" the lads exclaimed in one breath.
"My wife and your mother, Judd, were sisters," explained Mr. Boyd. "They were married about the same time, and used to joke each other about one having married a Boyd and the other a Floyd. When Budd was born his mother gave him her surname for his Christian name; and when, a few weeks later, Judd was born, his mother laughingly gave him the Christian name he bears, saying she would make it as near like Budd's as possible.
"We soon separated, I moving into Boston, and Judd's father going West. For a time we kept up a correspondence, but it grew less and less frequent, and finally entirely ceased. But your parents must have returned East, Judd, and I cannot understand why they did not communicate with me, unless your mother's pride was such that she did not wish us to know her husband had become a drunkard."