“Come in, come in, boy,” the Judge said in his deep voice. He stretched out his hand to Mr. Craig and nodded his head. There was a look in his eyes that told of an indomitable will, but they softened when they rested on his visitor.
“Sit down, lad. No, the easy chair. Becky, give him the easy one. So. Well, they try their best to get us, don’t they? I thought last night would be my last.”
“Oh, nonsense,” laughed Miss Craig. “Just ate too much, and had a little attack of indigestion, Dick. You’ll live to be eighty-nine and a half.”
The judge’s eyes twinkled as he gazed at her.
“Still contrary as can be, Becky. Won’t even let me have the satisfaction of thinking you saved my life, will you?”
“A good dose of peppermint and soda would have done just as well,” answered Becky serenely, turning to introduce Mrs. Craig. “He says he wants to make his will, but I think it’s only a notion, and he wants company. Still I guess we’ll humor him. It seems that he was going to leave everything he had to me. And I just found him out in time. The very idea when he’s got Billie, his own grandchild, flesh and blood, and such a charming boy too. He can leave me Billie if he likes, but he can’t leave me anything else. So you make it that way, Tom.”
“Leave her Billie, Tom,” sighed the Judge, “leave her Billie, and me too, if she’ll take us both.”
“Wouldn’t have you for a gift, Dick,” she answered, cheerful and happy as a girl as she looked down at him. “You’re a fussy, spoiled, selfish old man, just as you always were, and I couldn’t be bothered with you. But I’ll keep an eye on you so you don’t kill yourself before your time with sweet corn and peach shortcake, though I suppose it’s a pleasant sort of taking off at that. I’ll take Billie and Margie around the garden while you and Tom fix up that will, and mind you do it right. Billie’s going to have all that belongs to him.”
As the door closed behind her, the Judge winked solemnly at Mr. Craig. “Finest woman in seven counties. Ought to have been the mother of heroes and statesmen, but there she is, mothering Billie and bossing me to her heart’s content. Do you think she’d marry me, Tom?”
“I don’t know, Judge,” Mr. Craig replied. “Becky’s odd.”