Free Partners by Grace Livingston Hill

line like that."
    "Yes, I'll tell you," said Gillian, catching her breath. "It's our uncle. That is, he isn't really an uncle. My grandfather on Father's side married a widow with one son long before he ever met my grandmother. She died when they had been married only a short time, and the boy went to live with her relatives. Then Grandfather married again and my father was born. He and Mother were very happy when they married, and we had a happy home. We never saw Father's stepbrother, as he was living way out West. And after our father died, we lost track of him entirely. Until our mother's health began to fail, and then one day he turned up and pretended to be very much interested in us. He knew that our father had been successful in a business way, and he offered to take charge of things for Mother. That wasn't necessary, as Father had arranged everything in trust for us. But Uncle Mason hung around and would offer to go to the office and get Mother's dividends when they were due and all that. Mother didn't like it but finally was so sick she had to let him go for once. I was rather young then, and of course in school, but Mother used to talk to me about the business arrangements and told me that if anything happened to her, when I was of age I was to look out for things myself and take care of Noel."
    Gillian was panting for breath as she talked, and now the nurse came up and gave her a spoonful of medicine.
    "Take it easy, little girl," she whispered. "I'll go and get you some orange juice, and then you'll feel better."
    "I'm all right," said the girl wearily. "There isn't much more to tell. Uncle Mason stayed around until Mother died. After the funeral he called me one day and handed me over fifty dollars. He said something had happened to our investments and that was all that was left. He said I would have to get out and get a job. He was looking around for one for me, and when it came, I'd better do the best I could, for he couldn't afford to look after me. As for Noel--he called him 'that brat'--he said he couldn't support him. He was going back to his home in the West pretty soon, and he wanted to get everything settled up. So he was going to take Noel the very next day and put him in an orphanage, and then I wouldn't be hampered with him."
    Gillian suddenly broke down and wept, her frail shoulders shaking at the memory. Reuben put out a comforting hand and laid it softly on the tumbled brown curls.
    "You poor little girl!" he said softly.
    Gillian was still instantly, and in a moment she lifted her tearstained face, giving him a sad little wintry smile, and then went quickly on with her tale.
    "That night I took Noel and ran away out of the house while he was asleep. I went as far as I dared on the fifty dollars, and then I hunted up one of Father's old friends and asked him for a job. He was old and sick, and not in business anymore. He didn't live long after that, but he wrote a note to Mr. Glinden and I got my job. I had studied stenography and typing when I was in school, and I knew I could do good work. Mother saw to it that I had that. So I got the job, and we've been getting along till now, only sometimes I've been afraid Uncle Mason would turn up. You see, there was a big doctor's bill for Mother, and he didn't pay it. He said I'd have to pay it. So I've been saving, and now it's all paid. Only there hasn't been much left over for Noel and me. But if Uncle Mason has heard that I'm making money enough so I've paid that big doctor's bill, maybe he'll come around and claim half my money or something, and if he does, he'll send Noel away to an orphanage. I'm sure he will!"
    Reuben reached out and gathered her two little cold hands in both his own warm ones.
    "There, dear friend, don't you think of such a thing again! That isn't possible now, because you have plenty of strong, true friends who would take your part and look after you and that dear child as if they were their own. I certainly will, and so I know