A'knock at, the door saved Nancy from an answer. It was old Noah, the porter, lie held a letter in his hand. “it's for Mis’ Anne Leavitt and I'm blessed if I know which one of yez so, I sez, I’ll jes’ take it to the two of yez and let you loss up fer it l” It was not unusual for the two girls to find their mail confused. They generally distinguished by the handwriting or the post marks. But now they both stared at the letter they took from Noah’s had. It was addressed in a fine, old fashioned hand writing. “I can’t recognize it,” ex claimed one Anne Leavitt. “I’m sure I never saw it be fore!” cried the other. “isn’t this exciting? Let me see the postmark. F-r-c-e-d-o-in!" spelled Nancy. “1 never heard of.it,’’ she declared. “I believe it's mine! T have some relatives—or did have—a great aunt or something, who lived near ft” place like that way up on North Hero, Island. I’d fprgott.cn all about them. Open it, Glaire, and let’s see what it is.” j 1 ‘‘You never told us about any mint oh any North Hero Island! II sounds likefo romance, Anne,” accused Nancy, who thought she know everything about lmr frjppd. Aune laughed. “T don’t won der you think so. I just barely remember father speaking of her. Readi it, Claire 1” Claire’had seized the letter and opened it. “It is signed ‘Your loving aunt.’ Isn’t it the most ridiculous mystery? Why wouldn’t it have been something else besides an aunt!” “Well, I’m awfully afraid it is for me. ,Wc never could both have aunts on Nortli Hero Isl and. do on, blessed child—I’m prepared for the worst!' ’ Claire rose dramatically. “My dear Niece,” she read, adding: “I want you to know, Anne, that she honors you by spelling that with a capital.” “Of later years it lias been a matter of deep regret to me that though the same Jjlood runs in our veins we are like strangers, and that you have been allowed to grow to womanhood without knowing the home of your fore fathers von this historic island. It as for that reason that now, after considerable debate with my conscience, *1 am writing to you at your college address which I have obtained through a chance article in an Albany newspaper (‘that was the Senior Play writeup,’ interrupted Nancy, excitedly) to urge you to uvait yourself of the earliest op portunity to visit me iu the old liomc. “I feel the burden and respon sibility of my increasing years, and I know that soon I will be called to that land where our forefathers have gone before us. You are, 1 believe, my nearest of kin—the family, ns you must know, is dying out and I would have preferred that you had been a boy—I will tell you frankly thatA am considering changing my will and that upon your visit depends whether or not you will be my beneficiary. I would wish to leave .the home and iny worldly wealth—the wealth of the past Leavitts, to a Leavitt, but before I can do so to the sat isfaction of my own conscience, I must know that you arc a Leavitt and that you have been brought up with a true knowl edge and respect for what being u Leavitt demands of you. “I await your reply with anx iety. Your visit will give me pleasure and I assure you that you will learn to love the spot on which, for so many generations, your ancestors have lived.” “Your loving aunt, “Sabrina Leavitt.” “Well, I’ll be-” In all her college vocabulary Anne could not find a word to express her feelings. “Isn’t that rapturoust A great aunt and a fortune! Aiul will you please tell me why she had to etebate with her conscience t” cried Claire. Nancy was gleeful over Anne's wrath. ( . "I’m glad she’s yours, Annie (darling! Dad always said the x- whole world was my only kin, tmt I never ran against anyone who wanted to look me over be fore she left me a fortune! Who ever hoard of North flero Tslaml and whore in goodness is itt” “I remember, now, that her name was awfully queer—Aunt Sa-something or other, and North Hero Island isn’t utterly un known, Nancy, to the can’t even remember! i wish it had hap pened to Lake Champlain. I saw it once on a road-map when I was touring last fall with Professor and Mrs. Scott, and Professor Seott said it was a locality pic turesquely historic—I remem ber.” Claire turned the letter over and over. ‘‘I think it's all awfully thrill ing! An aunt you can’t even re member ! I wish it had happened to me! It would be something so different. It’s just like a story. But what a lot she does think of' her forefathers!” ‘‘Well, the Leavitts are a very old family and they are a New England family, too, although I was Lorn in California,” inter rupted Anne with a dignity that would have gladdened the great aunt’s heart. Nancy was again provoked to merriment. ‘‘Dad aiwayssaid that the only other Leavitt he knew was a cow puncher! He could lick anyone on the plains.” Anne jguored this. She was frowning in deep thought. ‘‘The tiresome part is that— if I don’t go—if I tell her about going to Russia—-she may write to my guardian!” All three were struck dumb at the thought. Anne had not con sulted her guardian before she had impulsively enlisted her ser vices in Madame Breshkovsky’s cause. Because she was three months past 21, legally ho could not interfere, but being so newly of age she had not had the cour age to meet his protest. So she bad simply written that she was planning a long trip with friends and would tell him of the details when they had been completed. A letter lay now in her desk which she intended to mail the day before she sailed. It would be too late, then, for him to in terfere. If her conscience troubled her a little about this plan, she told herself that the cause justified her'action. And now this Aunt Sa-some thing might upset everything! ‘‘I wish I could remember more about those relatives up there—father and mother used to laugh whenever they mentioned the old place. I always imagined they were dreadfully poor! She must he a terrible old lady—you can sort of tell by the tone of her letter. Oh, dear!” ‘‘What will you dot” echoed Claire, still thinking it a much more attractive adventure than T».* * 4UU3>litl . “ I have it!” crieil Anne: “ You shall go in my place, Nancy!” “ I! I should say not! Are you stark crazy, Anne Leavitt t” Anne seized her excitedly by the shoulder. “You could do it as easy as anything in the world, Nancy. She’s never laid eyes on me and I know my father never wrote to her. You’ll only have to go there for three or four weeks “And pose as a real Leavitt when I’m a Leavitt that just be longs to Dad! Well, I won’t do it!” replied Nancy, stubbornly. “Nan-cy, please listen! You wouldn’t have to do or say a tiling—she’d just take it for granted. And you could always make some excuse to go away if--” “If it looked as though I was goiug to be found out! Whv, it’d be like living oil a volcano. And I’d be sure to always say the wrong thing!” “But you could try it,” im plored Anne. “It would make eveything simple and you’d be doing your bit, tfcen, for Madame Breshkovsky! Think of all she told us of the suffering in Russia. Surely you could do a little thing now to help! And if Aunt did like you and left me her money, it would really be you and we’d give it to the cause 1” '‘ It'd bo acting a lie, ’ ’ broke in Nancy. “Oh, not exactly, Nancy, for you really are Anne Leavitt and, anyway, it’s just as though you were my other half. Way back I know we are related. If you don’t love me well enough to help me out now—well, I’m dis appointed. I’ll never forget it 1” Poor Nancy, mindful of the long separation that lay before her anil her friend, cried out in protest. "Oh, Anne, doii’t say that!” Cairo, her eves brilliant with lexcitemcnt chimed in: j "Nancy, it's a hopc-to-die ad venture. Maybe you could make up no end of stories and plays out of the things that happen up [there! And, anyway, you can finish the ‘Child’ and come to Merrycliffe that much sooner!” Claire had advanced the most appealing argument. North Hero Island certainly sounded more inspiring than a stuffy flat in Harlem with six small Finne gans one floor below. And it was on adventure. Anne Jhastened to take advan tage of the yielding she saw in Nancy’s face. [ "You can stay here with me until I have to go to New York, and we can look up trains and I can tell you all about my fore fathers, though I really don’t know a single tiling. But she won’t expect you to know don’t you remember she wrote that she regretted my being brought up without knowing the home of ray forefathers. And if you just ant as though you want ed more than anything else in the world to learn all about the Leavitts, she’ll , just love it and she’ll tell you everything you havo to know!” "It’s the most thrilling ro mance,” sighed Claire, envi ously. "Sounds more to me like a conspiracy, and can’t they put people in jail for doing things like that ?” demanded Nancy. "Oh, Nancy, you’re so literal —as if she would, way up there on an island next to nowhere! And anyway, think of the boys who perjured themselves to get into the service. Wasn’t that justified?” Nancy, being in an unpleasant mood, started to ask what that had to do with her pretending to be an Anne Leavitt who she wasn’t, when Big Anne went on in a hurt tone: ■ well, we won t tans auoui it anymore! I’ll have to give up going to Russia and my whole life will be spoiled. And I am disappointed—I thought onr friendship meant something to you, Nancy.” “Anne! There isn’t a thing I wouldn’t do for you! You’re next dearest to Dad. For you I’ll go to—Freedom or any old place. *1’ll do my best to be you to the dot and I’ll pay hom age to your forefathers and will ask not a penny of the legacy— Anne read no irony in her tone. Her dignity flown, she caught her friend in a strangling hug. “Oh, Nancy, you darling, will you? I’ll never forget it! We’ll write to her right away— or you will. From this very min ute you arc Anne Leavitt!” “I wish I could go, too,” put in Claire. “Perhaps I can coax Barry to motor up that way.” “Don’t you dare!” cried Nancy iu consternation. “It would spoil it all. I’ll write to you every day everything that happens. Goodness, if I’m as seared when I face your Aunt Sa-something as I am right now when I think about it, she’ll know at a glance that I'm just an everyday Leavitt and not the child of her forefathers!” “Hark!” Claire lifted a sil encing finger. “The seniors are singing.” The linos they loved drifted to them. “Lift the chorus, speed it on ward, Loud her praises tell!” “Let’s join them.” Suddenly Claire caught a hand of each. “Girls, think ot it—what it means—it’s the last time—it’s all over!” Her pretty face was tragic. Big Anne, with a vision of Russia in her heart, set her lips resolutely. “Don’t look baek—look ahead!” she cried, grandly. But in Nancy’s mind as, her arms linked with her chums’, she hurried off to join the othe^ seniors in their last sing, the troubling question echoed: “To what?” CHAPTER II. Webb. A clatter of departing hoofs, a swirl of dust—and Nancy wes left alone on the hot’ railo&d platform of North Hero. Her heart had seemed to fix itself in one painful lump in her throat. She was so very, very to facing her adventure! “If you please, can you tell me in what way I can reach Freedom!” Her faltering voice halted the telegraph operator as he was about to turn the corner of the station. “Freedom f Well now, old Webb bad ought V been here for the train. Isn-t, often Webb misses seein’ the engine come ini Just you go in and sit down, Miss, he’ll come along,” and scarcely had tvk» encouraging words passed the man’s lips than a rickety, three seated, can opied topped wagon, marked “Freedom Stage” turned the come/. “Hey, Webb, here’s a lady passenger goin’ along with you to Freedom! And did you think the express would wait for you 1” Webb and bis dutsy, rusty and rickety wagon was a welcome sight to poor Nancy. It had al | ready seemed to her that her ■ journey was endless and that | Freedom must be in the farthest ! corner of the world. For the first few hours she had been ab sorbed by her grief at parting with Anne. But a night in a funny little hotel in Burlington had given her time to reflect upon her undertaking and it had assumed terrible proportions in her eyes. The courage and confidence she had felt with her chums, hack in the room in the dormitory, deserted her now. “Goin to Freedom you say, Miss!” the man Webb asked, a great curiosity in bis eyes. “ Wal, you jes’ come along with me ! Had an order forTobiasesthat set me late, but we’ll git thar. Climb up here, Miss,” and with a flour ishing aside of his reins he mads room for her on the dusty seat he occupied. Mnimif lintwl n.l li a-u 1. a -— and climbed easily over the wheel into the seat he had indicated. Then with a loud “get-ap” and a flourish of his whip they rum bled off on the last leg of Nancy’s journey. “Ain’t ever been to Freedom be-fore?” he asked as they turned the corner of the maple shaded street of the little town, and the horses settled down into a steady trot. “Reckon not or old Webb ’ud have known ye—ain’t any folks come and go on this her* island thet I don’t know,*’ he added with pride, dropping his reins for a better study of his passengers The air was fragrant with spring odors, the great trees met in a quivery archway overhead, the meadow lands they passed were richly green; Nancy’s fail ing spirites began to soar! She threw a little smile toward the old man. “I’ve never been in Freedom before—though I’m a Leavitt,” aha/ventured. Her words had the desired ef fect. The man straightened with interest. “Wat, bless me, are ye one o’ Miss SabrinyV folks? And a goih’ to Happy House when ye ain’t ever seen it?” Nancy nodded. “I’m Anne Leavitt,” she answered care fully. “And I have never seen ray Aunt Sabrina. So I have come up from college for a little visit. And I think everything is lovely,” she finished, drawing a long breath, “though, goodness knows, I thought I’d never get here!” jShe was uncomfortably con scious that the put man was re garding her with open concern. “Funny', no one ain’t heard a word about it! So ye ’re Miss Sabriny’s great-niece and a-com in’ to Happy House from your school fer a visit!” “Why, yes, why not!” “Wal, I was jes’ thinkin’ you’d never seen Happy House. And 1 guess most folks in Free dom’s forgotten Miss Sabriny lied any folks muck—count of the trouble!’’ “Oh, what trouble, please, Mr. Webbl The old man shook his reins vigorously against the horses’ backs. “Webb, you’re an old fool— an old, dodderin’ fooll Of course this here trouble was a long spell ago, Miss, and don’t belong to Leavitts young like you. I a’pose it want much, anyways, and I guess Miss Sabriny her self’s forgotten it else you wouldn’t be a coinin’ to Happy House! I’m an old man, missy, and thar ain't been ranch in Freedom as I don’t know about, but an old un’d ought a know ’nough to keep his tongue in his head. Only—you come to Webb if anything bothers you and you needn’t call me Mr. Webb, eith er, for though I’m one of Free dom’s leadin’ cit-zuns and they’d never be a Memorial Day or any kind of Fourth of July doin’s in Freedom without me—nobody calls me Mister Webb and you jus’ come to me-” Nancy, forgetful now of thi pleasant things about her, frowned. _ (To b* Contlnui 1 next week.) | Gland Theory of Crime. _j Elizabeth M. Heath, i IlfE HAVE discovered our glands, ell Far many years as many as ® * 500,000 or 1,000,000, perhaps, our endecerine organs have been with us, 'Unobserved except by certain patient scientists. At last they are coming Into their own. Led by their better known member, thyroid, the whole endocrine famly, pituitary, suprarenal et al, are marching into small talk. In the last few months the hitherto unsuspected cndocrines have an swered to an appalling number of charges. A young hospital nurse de clares that a malicious thyroid made hor steal a friend’s fur coat. A prom inent scientist charges that their se cretions oro all that stand between our wearisome civilized state and the hairy coats, the facial contours, the prehensile toes, and, presumably, the simple customs of the apes. There seems to. bd something In these glands, something to engage the attention of plain and sober citi zens, a solid foundation of fact under the extravagant superstructure raised by the catchword intellectuals. It isn’t hard to believe that we achieved our present intellectual pinnacle through the kind action of the thymus gland in retarding the growth of the human skull. Murder, assault, arson, vandalism, theft, and a host of other crimes are often results of a disturbance in the ductless glands, says Dr. Max :enter will not cause an emotional ivavo of sufficient intensity to over come the Inhibition which would na turally come to the motivating from lie intellectual center. If, however. :he functional threshold in the emot ional center where low, the wave of feeling would release an impulse so itrong that no inhibition of prudence - -4 would stop it, and all consideration tf an Intellectual character would oe overwhelmed and the motivating center would Issue Us commands to Lho muscles. Too high an explosion point has the effect of deadening all feeling. It produces dullness and inertia. Too low an explosion point produces the person who goes off half cocked, who yields to the slightest pressure on the trigger of his emotions. It Is with this latter class thatjjwe are mainly concerned, for they contribute heavily to the total of emotional crime. At this point the ductless glands re enter the discussion, for it Is their behavior that pushes the explosion point up or down the scale of normal ity, according to the following laws: The point at which the unstable protoplasm in the motivating centers of the brain will explode Is deter mined by the chemical content of Ihe blood. If there is a disproportion of hor mones, as the secretions of the duct less glands are called, there Is a dis turbance of the balance of the ex plosion thrcshqjds in the groups of cells in 'the nervous system, the se cretions acting selectively on such colls. Under these creumstances it Is Im portant to know what causes varia tion in the secretion of hormones, ft has beerr discovered that the glands are affected by foreign toxins Intro duced Into the system, and that they are also affected by the patient’s mental condition—such emotions as fear, anxiety, anger, pain, etc. Under repeated or continued nervovjs strain a vicious circle Is established, the.pa tient’s emotionality Increases the se cretion of hormones, and these se cretions make. Ills emotions still more unstable. This process frequently , continues until the explosion point is far below normal, and the patient , Is the helpness victim of his Impulses. • Perhaps most Important 6f all dis coveries about the ductless glands Is that the amount of hormones in the blood can be controlled by means of therapeutics, and, while knowledge on this subject is by no means com plete, remarkable results have been obtained, notably In connection with ^— the thyroid gland. y,, That is what happened to Archie Daniels. His long brooding over liis unhappy love affair stimulated his ductless glands to Increased secretion. IDs ijxplosion point was lowered with iaii-reaslng velocity, and he became not only more inclined to worry, but also more inclined to carry out the action suggested by the circum stances. His nerves put prossure upon jijm to end an unbearable sit- Jfk \ uation by killing both himself and 'r the girl, but the first shot relieved the * tension, and the fact that ho never completed the act proves that H was m the result not of resolve, but of irre sistible Impulse. His wave of ffellns _ wiped out all considerations of right and wrong, all inhibitions from the intellectual side of his brain, but when it had spent itself in action these reasserted their hold. His re morse was so deep that he wished to expiate his guilt in the electric chair. “Come East, Young Man. Prom the Concord Monitor. Years ago a native of New Hampshire coined the famous phrase, *'Qo west young man, and grow up with the coun try,” and thereby gave great Impetus to emigration from New England. Today the state of New Hampshire is at the head of a movement to at tract settlers back to the farms of old New' England. “Como east, young man, is the modern slogan. A committee sent out by farm and civic organizations of New Hampshire is new working in Ohio, where farm lands are pretty well taken up, to en courage the overflow farm talent to turn east instead of w'est or north. The move ment is to be extended to other states. There are many reasons why the campaign should be successful. Modern methods of farm development, modern farm machinery, better methods of fruit and stock raising have changed the problem of New England farmers. Mar kets are many and hauls short: The free, wide spaces of the west wm tempt the man who wants to do nls farming on a majestic scale, but the man to whom Intensive work upon m smaller acreage appeals may find suc cess In almost any of the older sections of the country. Railways and Foreign Ships. From the Boston Transcript. Representatives of American railways who met with a Joint committee of the shipping hoard and the Interstate Com merce commission to consider the ques tion of exclusive and preferential con tracts between the roads and foreign steamship lines, expressed themselves, with one exception, as willing to abro gate or modify such agreements If they were asked to do so by the proper au thorities. The exception was the Chi cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, which was represented as demanding some assur ance that it would have business under the new order of things to take the place of that which It might lose through the ending of the old. It was stated that in the caee of the Grand Trunk, a f* elgn system. Immediate definition of the road's attitude In the matter could not be given, hut there was a pretty plain suggestion of what might happen. There can. of course, be no disagree ment with the proposition stated by Commissioner Thompson of the shipping board that .this country having under taken to build up and maintain a great merchant marine. It is the duty of American enterprises, and particularly those that are beneficiaries of govern ment support, to make every effort to contribute to the sucessful operation of American shipping. Mr. Tfi«npson. tn \' addition to laying down this general principle, called attention to the fact that an exelustve or preferential agree ment between an American railroad ami a foreign flag shipping concern appeared to be contrary to the Intent or congress as expressed in section it of the ship ping act.