He had his arm around me, and as I have learned to do, I put my
head down on his shoulder.
"Phil," he said with such sadness in his voice that the new-learned
tears started, "this is all we will ever have of Bess. The doctor says
she has begun to drift faster now, and it will not be long. What would
I have done if I had lost even what she had been to me these sad
years--before I found you to help me?"
Then, after the first time I had ever cried on my father's breast, he
told me all about himself, and the money and how he came to make it,
and how it was all wrong, but it has never been his personal dishonor
that was involved. This invention of the Idol gives him more power
than ever, and he is going to use it to reorganize things so that
everybody will make more for their work and belong in the business. He
has appointed Judge Luttrell one of the lawyers and Mr. Chadwell one
of the directors--and he is going to try to stay in Byrdsville most of
the time and I am to help him arrange about keeping out of the
temptation of riches.
"And I'll try not to develop Byrdsville anymore than I can help,
Phil," he said as he wiped my eyes on his handkerchief and then his
own.
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