The two boys lived in Sunset, Virginia. It is a small town in the northern part of the state. One was the 13 year old son of the town police chief and his wife. He was Buddy Stark whose parents were Harry and Alice Stark. He also had a 4 year old sister, Crissy, whose real name was Christine.

The other teenager was 14 and he was the son of the publisher of the weekly town newspaper, The Sunset Sun. He was Joe "Inky" Burton. His friends called him Inky because he helped his father typeset the newspaper and had a hard time getting all the ink off his hands. Some of the kids called him Stinky Inky behind his back. They did not dare do so to his face. His parents were Jim and Helen Burton.

On the way back to town, the boys decided to go first to Buddy's house since his dad was a town official. Since they lived next door to each other they would have Inky's parents come over to Buddy's house.

It caused quite a stir when they arrived with the little boy. They told how they had gone to the water tower beside the railroad tracks while the 6 o'clock train was taking on water for the boiler. They wanted to see if anyone got on or off the train. Everyone in town would like to have a real train station in the town but the best they could do was a platform at the water tower a couple miles north of town.

When the train left, Buddy and Inky were ready to head home when up walked this little boy. He was dirty and had tear streaks on his face. He said the same thing to the adults he had said to the boys. He handed the piece of paper from his pocket to Harry Stark. Harry stared and stared at it. Then he called the other three over to see it. They all agreed that it looked like an E and an L. Then several spaces and eacle. Do you suppose instead of saying eel he is trying to say Earl? None of them could say for sure. They all agreed they would call him ee for the time being, this seemed like a fair compromise. It was as close to what was written on the paper as they could be sure about.

Alice Stark asked ee if he was hungry and he said he was. She called Crissy's nanny to take him to the bath while she made him a warm bowl of soup and a glass of milk and some cookies. Then she went to find one of Buddy's outgrown undershirts to serve as a gown while they washed his clothes.

Crissy sat beside ee and watched as he ate the soup. Every time the tears would come to his eyes, she would pat him on the arm and smile at him. After he ate most of the soup, he fell asleep right there in the chair. Somehow he knew he was safe now but he still wanted his mother.

After the two little ones had been put to bed, the rest all sat there wondering what to do next. Buddy told them he thought Widow Larkins might like to have ee live with her, since she was all alone after the death of her husband, Chief.

"You know, Buddy that sounds like it could be a solution for ee's temporary care. Why don't you two boys go over to her house and ask her to come over and we will see what she thinks about it."

Widow Larkins had been the wife of the Chief of police for many years. They had no children and it was lonely after his death. His given name had been Bethune. Everyone shortened it down to Betty. He absolutely hated this name but was wise enough not to say so.

He had spent all his adult life in law enforcement. First he got a job as deputy in Big Rock, the county seat located 16 miles up the railroad track from Sunset. He would board the train in the early morning hours at the water tower and receive a complimentary pass to Big Rock where the train station was located. In the evening on the way home he would purchase a ticket all the way to Russellville, several more miles to the South. Then he only rode the train to Sunset. This is the way everyone rode the train to and from Big Rock. That way it paid for the ride northbound to Big Rock as well as the trip back home.

During his days as deputy, he met a lovely young lady named Betty Wilson. Now it became confusing. His nickname had followed him. Now it was Betty Lakins dating Betty Wilson!

The job of Chief of Police in Sunset became open and was offered to Bethune. This would be ideal. It would save him the trip back and forth to the county seat every day and would also give him money enough to get married. But the only thing was, he knew it would never work to have Betty Larkins married to Betty Larkins.

Finally he came up with a solution. He would accept the position if the whole town agreed to stop calling him Betty and give him the honorary nickname of Chief. The whole town agreed to this. They celebrated the wedding of Chief and Betty Larkins. Although there were times when some slipped and called him Betty. He had thoughts of jailing them for this offense but knew in his heart they only made a mistake.

For several years all was well with them. They really mourned the fact that they had no children though. The job of Chief was not particularly hard since there was not a lot of crime in Sunset. It mostly consisted of sending teenage boys home long after dark and overseeing Sunday afternoon horseraces.

These horseraces proved to be a disaster for Chief. One Sunday afternoon a horse got overly enthusiastic about running. It left the race track and started down Main Street in town. Chief road after it, caught it and attempted to slow it down. Somehow he got tangled in a stirrup and was trampled to death.

Everyone mourned his demise as he had been a real addition to the town. They decided they should pay his widow a pension for all the years of Chief's service to the community. So that is how she became known as Widow Larkins.

TO BE CONTINUED......