“It isn’t’” laughed Kent.  “It’s Old Tilly Eddy!”

But in the middle of the night a ghost appeared suddenly over Old Tilly.  The pale moonlight introduced it timidly as Jot, in his white shirt.  He sat down on the bed.

“I’m going home,” he announced in a whisper.  “You other fellows can do as you like.  Of course you can ride all right with one hand, if you’re bound to.  But I sha’n’t ride with three hands any further from home!  I’m going home!  I—­I feel as if I must!”

Old Tilly sat up in bed.  “You sick, Jotham Eddy?” he cried.

“No—­o, not sick—­not reg’lar built!  But I tell you I’m going home.  It’s no use saying anything—­I’ve said it.”  “I believe you’re sick; you’re keeping something back, Jot.”

“Well, what if I am?  Didn’t you keep something back yourself, till you fainted away doing it?  I’m going—­you and Kentie needn’t, of course.  I tell you I feel as if I must.”

“He’s sick, Kentie,” Old Tilly said next morning.  “There’s something the matter with him, sure, or he wouldn’t be so set.  Don’t you think he looks kind of pale-ish?”

“Pale-ish!” scoffed Kent.

“Well, something’s up.  Mother put him in my care, and I’m going to take him home.  I’d never forgive myself, and mother’d never forgive me, if anything happened to Jot away from home.  I’m sorry on your account, Kentie.”

“Oh, go ahead!  I’m all right,” rejoined Kent, cheerfully.  “I’d just as soon.  We’ve had a jolly good time of it so far, and we can take the rest of it out in going fishing or camping at home.”

“Well, then we’ll go right back home—­on Jot’s account.  I feet as if I must take him to mother.”

Poor Jot!  It was hard to be taken home that way, when all the while wasn’t he taking wounded Old Tilly home to mother?  It was the only way he had been able to work it out, lying awake and worrying over the torn wrist.  Something must be done to get Old Tilly home.

“I told the truth—­I said I was keeping something back,” thought Jot.  “I said I wasn’t sick, didn’t I?  And Old Till’s got to go home.  The doctor told me the sooner the better.”

But it was a distinct sacrifice to Jot’s pride to be “taken home to mother.”  He bore it remarkably well because of the love and anxiety in his sturdy little heart.  He would do a good deal for Old Till.

They returned by a more direct route than they had come.  On the way, they discussed their adventures.  Jot counted them up on his fingers.

“Hand-organs, old churches, little old man’s hay—­pshaw! that wasn’t an adventure!” Jot blushed hotly, as if caught in some misdeed.

“No, skip that,” Old Tilly said quietly.  “That just happened.  Begin over again.”

“Hand-organs, old churches (two adventures there, you know), picnics, slow races—­”

“Skip that!” cried Old Tilly.

“No, sir!  Slow races, burning barns, arteries—­” “Oh, I say!  I’ll do the counting up myself!  Besides, you left out the very first adventure, didn’t you?”