The whole Valley rejoiced in the first and second happenings, and were too much occupied in them to notice the third.  Carriages rolled in and out of the great entrance gate all day long, for Mrs. Dudley had always been a favourite with the old neighbours, and they gave a warm welcome to her and her gallant husband.  Virginia followed her father and mother about like a loving shadow, and Keith was so interested in the wonderful stories they told of their Cuban experiences that he never noticed how much his father and Malcolm were away from home.  Sometimes they would be gone all day together, consulting with the old professor, overseeing carpenters, or making hasty trips to the city.  Jonesy’s home, that had been so long only a beautiful air-castle, was rapidly taking shape in wood and stone, and the painters would soon be at work on it.

Mr. Maclntyre had never been more surprised than he was when Malcolm unfolded their plan to him.  It did not seem possible that two children could have thought of it all, and arranged every detail without the help of some older head.

“It just grew,” said Malcolm, in explanation.  “First Keith said how lovely it would have been if we had made enough money at the Benefit to have bought a home for Jonesy in the country, where he could have a fair chance to grow up a good man.  Just a comfortable little cottage with a garden, where he could be out-of-doors all the time, instead of in the dirty city streets; then nobody could call him a ‘child of the slums’ any more.  Then we said it would be better if there were some fields back of the garden, so that he could learn to be a farmer when he was older, and have some way to make a living.  We talked about it every night when we went to bed, and kept putting a little more and a little more to it, until it was as real to us as if we had truly seen such a place.  There were vines on the porches, and a big Newfoundland dog on the front steps, and a cow and calf in the pasture, and a gentle old horse that could plough and that Jonesy could ride to water.

“We told Ginger, and she thought of a lot more things; some little speckled pigs in a pen and kittens in the hay-mow, and ducks on the pond, and an orchard, and roses in the yard.  She said we ought to call the place ‘Fairchance,’ because that’s what it would mean for Jonesy and Barney (you know we would send for Barney first thing we did, of course), and it was Ginger who first thought of getting some nice man and his wife to take care of the boys.  She said there are plenty of people who would be glad to do it, just for the sake of having such a good home.  Ginger said if we could do all that, and keep Jonesy and his brother from growing up to be tramps like the man we bought the bear from, it would be serving our country just as much as if we went to war and fought for it.  Ginger is a crank about being a patriot.  You ought to hear her talk about it.  And Aunt Allison said that ’an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ and that to build such a place as our ‘Fairchance’ would be a deed worthy of any true knight.”