"I'm awful sorry to hear 'bout the Cap'n," interrupted Aunt Mandy, as if the other matter and Chip's future were settled definitely; "but if he drops off, Aunt Abby must come here fer good. I dunno but it'll be a relief," she added, looking at Uncle Jud and sighing. "'Twa'n't no love-match in the first place, 'n' Abby's mind's always been sot on your brother Cyrus, 'n' she never quite gin up the idee he was alive."
And now a sudden faintness came to Chip as the chasm in her own life was thus opened. Only one instant she faltered, and then her defiant courage rose supreme and she took the plunge.
"Oh, your brother Cyrus isn't dead, Uncle Jud," she exclaimed, "he's alive and I know him. I've known it all summer and dare not tell because I'm a miserable coward and couldn't own up that I lied to you. My name isn't Raymond, it's McGuire; and my father was a murderer, and I'm nobody and fit for nobody. I know you'll all despise me now and I deserve it. I'm willing to go away, though," and the next instant she was kneeling before Uncle Jud and sobbing.
It had all come in a brief torrent of pitiful confession which few would be brave enough to make.
To Chip, seeing herself as she did, it meant loss of love, home, respect, and all else she now valued, and that she must become a homeless wanderer once more.
But Uncle Jud thought otherwise, for now he drew the sobbing girl into his lap.
"Quit takin' on so, girlie," he said, choking back a lump; "why, we'll all love ye ten times more fer all this, an' ez fer bein' a nobody, ye're a blessed angel to us fer bringin' the news ye hev." And then he kissed her, while Aunt Mandy wiped her eyes on her apron.
The shower, violent for a moment, was soon over; for as Chip raised her wet eyes, a sunshiny smile illumined Uncle Jud's face.
"If Cyrus is alive," he said, "as ye callate, I'll thank God till I set eyes on him, and then I think I'll lick him fer not huntin' me up all these years."
"But mebbe he found Abby was married 'n' didn't want to," interposed Aunt Mandy. "We mustn't judge him yet."
"No, I won't judge him," asserted Uncle Jud; "I'll jest cuff him, good 'n' hard, an' let it go at that.
"Ez fer you, girlie, an' jest to set yer mind at rest, we found out what your right name was and where ye run away from last fall, but never let on to nobody. 'Twas your business and nobody else's, an' made no difference in our feelin's, ez ye must see; an' now I'll tell ye how I found out.