"I think there's going to be fried
chicken when we get home, Billy," he said, "so you just take the edge
off now, and fill up later."
While Billy lunched Sinton called up the different departments
and notified the proper authorities ending with the Women's Relief
Association. He sent a basket of food to Belle and Jimmy, bought Billy a
pair of trousers, and a shirt, and went to bring Elnora.
"Why, Uncle Wesley!" cried the girl. "Where did you find Billy?"
"I've adopted him for the time being, if not longer," replied Wesley
Sinton.
"Where did you get him?"
"Well, young woman," said Wesley Sinton, "Mr. Brownlee told me the
history of your lunch box. It didn't seem so funny to me as it does to
the rest of them; so I went to look up the father of Billy's family, and
make him take care of them, or allow the law to do it for him. It will
have to be the law."
"He's deader than anything!" broke in Billy. "He can't ever take all the
meat any more."
"Billy!" gasped Elnora.
"Never you mind!" said Sinton. "A child doesn't say such things about a
father who loved and raised him right. When it happens, the father alone
is to blame. You won't hear Billy talk like that about me when I cross
over."
"You don't mean you are going to take him to keep!"
"I'll soon need help," said Wesley. "Billy will come in just about right
ten years from now, and if I raise him I'll have him the way I want
him."
"But Aunt Margaret doesn't like boys," objected Elnora.
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