“Lila, little sister, how would you like to be my housekeeper this summer? I am thinking of sending Nell away for a good rest and change. Amy and Harry will seldom be here, and you would have the house all to yourself.” Nell was out for the afternoon, and Doyle was busy down the street, leaving Lila alone in the house. Austin had chosen this quiet time to have a good heart-to-heart talk with Lila.

“But Doyle! I fear I could not manage him. He does not like to obey Nell, and I could not do a thing with him. He is a naughty boy when you are away. I am afraid he would plague me nearly to death.” Lila spoke frankly, not because she did not love her brother, but because what she had to say was truth. Doyle was too active a boy to be shut up in the narrow quarters his town home afforded.

“We could hardly expect Doyle to obey you who are so little older than he. He does tease you and Nell dreadfully, I know; but he has so little to occupy his mind, and he hates the housework Nell gives him to do. No boy thrives on dish-washing. We will not blame him too severely for his naughtiness. I am thinking of letting him go down to Papa’s this summer, and if he wishes to stay longer he may. He desires to go I am certain, and on the farm he would have plenty to keep him busy. If you also would rather go away for the summer, I think either Wilbur or George would be glad to have you go to his home for a good visit. In fact, ever since George made us that visit he has felt it would only be right for him to have one of you girls. You would have a very pleasant time in either home. But if you prefer to remain here with me, we can keep house well enough. I can help you with the heavy work out of my work-hours, and will arrange to have some one with you at night when I have to be away. Besides, I intend to get a piano, and you may have lessons on that while the girls are away. What do you say?”

“I will stay with you. And I shall enjoy the music-lessons. Are you really going to get us a piano? I would rather be here with you than anywhere else. And the housework will be fun when I can manage it to suit myself. Nell always wants to boss it, and I almost hate it sometimes; but I shall like to manage.”

Austin laughed at Lila’s earnestness before he said, “I fear there is a streak of bossiness in every one of us. I am well developed on that line, Amy and Nell are my close seconds, and here you are getting the same characteristic. Well, if you stay with me you can ‘boss’ to your heart’s content.”

“Austin,” and Lila spoke confidentially, “why does Doyle want to go down to the farm? I do not want a new mother. She could not be like our own mother. And I hardly know Papa.”

“Doyle does not remember his own mother at all, and he has longed all his life for a mother’s love. He wants a father and mother like other boys have, and I can not blame him. Then he loves the farm and would rather be there than anywhere else. All his talk is about a farm and farm-work. I think it will be better for him to go. Papa is not drinking now, and will do very well by him. We must not think that Papa has no love for his children, nor that he would not have any of us with him. He was lonely, and had much to discourage him in the past.”

“I had not thought of it in that way,” said Lila softly. “Perhaps Papa does love us a little after all.”

“Doyle,” said Austin one day when they had a chance for a quiet talk alone, “do you yet wish to go to your father and his new wife?”

“Yes, Austin, I do,” answered the boy earnestly.

“Why are you dissatisfied with your home here? Have I not made it comfortable and homelike for you?” questioned Austin, who could hardly help feeling that the boy’s sentiments reproached him.

“It is not that, Austin. I am happy enough here, and satisfied with all you have done for me. But I want a father and a mother. I see other fellows with their parents, and it makes me lonesome. I feel as if I were not getting my share. There can be no one to really take the place of a fellow’s father and mother, can there? I want to be with them and call them Father and Mother.”

“You are right, Doyle. There can no one take the place of a mother, and it ought to be that way with a father. I have tried to fill both places to you children, but after all I am only a big brother. I have a proposition for you. I will let you go to your father this summer as soon as school is out, and you may stay till fall, and then if you like it better than you do here you may remain with your father. You know what life is here, and when you have tried that out, decide what you will do. I shall hate to give you up, but if you want your father and he wants you, I have no right to keep you apart.”

“Oh, Austin, thank you!” exclaimed the boy. “There is nothing in town. I want to go to the country, where I can drive and ride the horses and bring in the cows, and go hunting, and climb trees. There is everything out there, and nothing here but to help Nell with the housework, and I hate that.”

“You get tree-climbing here, if I may judge from your torn coats and trousers; but of course the other things belong to the country. You may try it out. We are going to give Nell a rest for the summer, and with you gone Lila and I can make out very well. How do you think you will like the new Mother?”

“All right. Harry has been down there, you know, and he says she is nice, and wants me to come. Have you written Papa yet to know if he wants me?”

“Yes, and he is eager for you to come. He gets lonely without any of us children since he is settled in his new home. They will make you welcome, and I believe you will like it.”

The little boy skipped off, eager to impart his good news to some of his friends. He was going to have the dearest wish of his heart fulfilled in going to his country home.

“Austin, here is a letter from Amy with great news in it. She is soon to be married, and wants to come home to make ready. What shall I tell her?” said Nell one day.

“This is Amy’s home. She has the same right here as have the others,” said Austin, adding anxiously, “I wonder what choice she has made.”

There followed a whirl of busy days after Amy came home, then the flitting of the young bride to her new home. Austin gave a sigh of relief, as many a parent has done, when at last he saw his restless sister anchored in a home of her own. He had followed her movements anxiously, for he knew there were many temptations for her in the care-free life she appeared to be living.

“What is your decision, Nell?” asked Austin one day some time after they had talked over the summer’s outing.

“I have decided to go with the Freemans. I do not know how long I shall stay; but if I like it I shall stay all summer. I feel as if I never wanted to come back to the round of housework and cooking. I am so, oh, so tired of it all! But maybe I shall get homesick when I am once away.”

The first of June came, closing the term of school, and the next day Doyle was ready to start for the farm. So jubilant was he that he did not see the pained look on Austin’s face, nor for one moment saw the wound it was to Austin that he could part with his home so easily. Austin’s whole life was bound up in his home. He had not the experience to know that practically every boy of Doyle’s age, and placed in the same circumstances, would do as he did; nor did he realize that because the children had been but the receivers of his gifts of love and sacrifice, they could not comprehend what it had all meant to him. After a while, when they had met life as all must meet it, they would look back and understand what he had done, and what he had felt. This home for the children had cost him his youth and youthful ambitions, and to part with it would have been like giving up life and hope; but to the children it was just home, and that a home with limitations.

A few days later Nell was off for her summer’s outing, and Lila and Austin were home alone. How quiet and calm it seemed! And how they enjoyed themselves! Lila was busy with her music and the light housekeeping necessary for the two of them, and Austin came and went to and from his daily work with a heart freer from care than he had done for a long time.

“Oh, dear!” sighed Lila over the contents of a letter in her hand. “The summer is not half gone and Nell is coming back. I thought I was to be housekeeper all summer. Oh, dear!”

“Surely my little sister is going to make Nell welcome! Think of all that Nell has been to us and our home ever since we began it,” said Austin soothingly.

“But Nell is cross, and she wants everything to go her way,” protested Lila with a scowl on her face.

“I know, Lila, that Nell is impatient sometimes. But she has not been well. She has had to work too hard, and we must be patient with her. Let us make her welcome, and then I believe everything will go right. Cheer up,” said Austin happily.

Nell had found her outing much different from what she had thought it would be. She was a home body, and when she got away from the familiar scenes, and rested a little from the heavy work, she began to long for the dear home circle. Besides, she feared that Lila could not keep up the housework as it should be done. So she had decided to return long before the summer was ended.

In spite of Lila’s protests, she took up her old responsibilities, and left the little girl free for her music and recreations. Austin was glad to have Nell with them again, for he had not altogether approved of leaving Lila so much alone.

Autumn came, bringing a letter from Doyle saying that he had decided to stay on the farm, assuring his brother that he was perfectly satisfied with life as he found it there. Austin’s answer was a complete release of the child, so that he no longer was counted in the family circle.

Harry was home very little, but when he came he brought good cheer and comradeship with him. He was fond of Nell, and found pleasure in spending a part of his means in buying her pretty clothes. Nell was handy with her needle, and was wise in the choice of both materials and styles, and so was able to go out carefully and tastefully dressed.

Home seemed to have settled once more into steady lines, with just the three in the family. But as this was a bark that seldom rested in quiet seas, another storm-cloud was seen arising, and it was larger than a man’s hand.