“Well, the Senator is a lawyer, God prosper him, an’ he has shown us that the chief business o’ the lawyer is to keep men out o’ the law.”

Having come to the first flight of the uplands, he left me with many a kind word—­how much they mean to a boy who is choosing his way with a growing sense of loneliness!

I reached the warm welcome of our little home just in time for dinner.  They were expecting me and it was a regular company dinner—­chicken pie and strawberry shortcake.

“I wallered in the grass all the forenoon tryin’ to git enough berries for this celebration—­ayes!—­they ain’t many of ’em turned yit,” said Aunt Deel.  “No, sir—­nothin’ but pure cream on this cake.  I ain’t a goin’ to count the expense.”

Uncle Peabody danced around the table and sang a stanza of the old ballad, which I have forgotten, but which begins: 

     Come, Philander, let us be a-marchin’.

How well I remember that hour with the doors open and the sun shining brightly on the blossoming fields and the joy of man and bird and beast in the return of summer and the talk about the late visit of Alma Jones and Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln!

While we were eating I told them about the letter of old Kate.

“Fullerton!” Aunt Deel exclaimed.  “Are ye sure that was the name, Bart?”

“Yes.”

“Goodness gracious sakes alive!”

She and Uncle Peabody gave each other looks of surprised inquiry.

“Do you know anybody by that name?” I asked.

“We used to,” said Aunt Deel as she resumed her eating.  “Can’t be she’s one o’ the Sam Fullertons, can it?”

“Oh, prob’ly not,” said Uncle Peabody.  “Back east they’s more Fullertons than ye could shake a stick at.  Say, I see the biggest bear this mornin’ that I ever see in all the born days o’ my life.

“It was dark.  I’d come out o’ the fifty-mile woods an’ down along the edge o’ the ma’sh an’ up into the bushes on the lower side o’ the pastur.  All to once I heerd somethin’!  I stopped an’ peeked through the bushes—­couldn’t see much—­so dark.  Then the ol’ bear riz up on her hind legs clus to me.  We didn’t like the looks o’ one ‘nother an’ begun to edge off very careful.

“Seems so I kind o’ said to the ol’ bear:  ‘Excuse me.’

“Seems so the ol’ bear kind o’ answered:  ‘Sart’nly.’

“I got down to a little run, near by, steppin’ as soft as a cat.  I could just see a white stun on the side o’ it.  I lifted my foot to step on the stun an’ jump acrost.  B-r-r-r-r!  The stun jumped up an’ scampered through the bushes.  Then I was scairt.  Goshtalmighty!  I lost confidence in everything.  Seemed so all the bushes turned into bears.  Jeerusalem, how I run!  When I got to the barn I was purty nigh used up.”

“How did it happen that the stone jumped?” I asked.

“Oh, I guess ’t was a rabbit,” said Uncle Peabody.

Thus Uncle Peabody led us off into the trail of the bear and the problem of Kate and the Sam Fullertons concerned us no more at that time.