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Uncle Ben came out just then, and shook hands with his Oakdale friends. “Just go in that director’s room until I finish talking to these two young men, will you?”

So the little Talmages and Starrs and Jinks left Uncle Ben with Ikey and Micky Finn.

“Mr. Ta’mage, dis newspaper boy’s got a bad-off sister to which a Doc says she must get away quick to the country fer fresh air or a grave. Now Finn—he’s Micky Finn, you know, an’ a fren’ of mine—says he ain’t got no country place an’ neider have we got a cemetery lot if Nelly goes and dies, but mebbe you kin let her come right away, quick, to Happy Hills so she kin get well and not need a grave.”

Ikey told the story in one breath so that at the last he was not very distinct, but Uncle Ben knew the story—there were so many, many more just like it in the city! If only Happy Hills had fifty times the number of acres fitted up with fifty times the number of camp-nests!

“Micky, how old is your sister Nelly?” asked Mr. Talmage.

“She’s two years younger’n me,” stammered Finn.