Where the Blue Begins

e dishcloth rack in the kitchen. Fuji was very short in stature, and could not reach up to the place where the rack was screwed over the sink. Like all people whose minds are very activ

of paper FIX DISHCLOTH RACK and pinned it on his dressing-t

underfoot. Also, when he walked close beside the water the voices were silent. That is worth noting, he said to himself. If you go directly at the heart of a mystery, it ceases to be a mystery, and becomes only a question of drainage. (Mr. Poodle had told him that if he had the pond and swamp drained, the frog-song would not annoy him.) But to-night, when the keen chirruping ceased, there was still another sound that did not cease-a faint, appealing cry. It caused a prickling

p carefully and

ome of the Grade A, and put a little brand

f their paws were ice-cold, and he filled the hot water bottle and held it carefully to their twelve feet. Their pink stomachs throbbed, and at

oked very grave when he saw the mu

you suppose they can lap, or

. They washed the ink out of it, and used it to drip the hot brandy-and-milk down the puppies' throats. Their noses, whi

the porch, with the mercury split in two. I don't suppos

oyer was making too muc

ll right. A good sleep will revive them. The

spare-room bed until he was sure the puppies were sleeping correctly. He closed the door so that Fuji would not hear h

ne was to a bookseller in the city, asking him to send (at once) one copy of Dr. Holt's book on the Care and Feeding of Children, and a well-illustrated editio

" said Gissing. "I would know n

r a while, "that I shall h

he kitchen and fixe

e cheese was never put on the same rack with the butter; the doors of the ice-box were carefully latched. Such observations, and the slow twinkle of the fire in the range, deep down under the curfew layer of coals, pleased him. In the cellar he peeped into the garbage can, for it was always a satisfaction to assure himself that Fuji did not waste anything that could be used. One

ng coming from the pond. He tasted the night air with cheerful s

noses. It seemed to him that they were perspiring a little, and he was worried lest they catch cold. His morning sleep (it had always been his comfortable habit to lie abed a trifle late) was interrupted about seven o'clock by a lively clamour

pink their stomachs are, and how pink and delightful between their toes! You hold these two while I dry the other. No, not that way! Hold them so you support their spines

department store to choose three small cribs and a multitude of safety pins. "Plenty of safet

porch, in the sunshine, for their morning

e a gate for the top of the stairs. He was so busy that he did not even have time to think of his pipe, or the morning paper. At last, just before lunch, he found a breathing space. He sat down in the study to rest his legs, and looked for the Time

, and he was annoyed, for he felt certain they knew he was a bachelor. But the children were a source of nothing but pride to him. They grew with astounding rapidity, ate their food without coaxing, rarely cried at night, and gave him much amusement by their naive ways. He was too occupied to be troubled with introspection. Indee

high chairs, with a spindrift of milk and prune-juice spattering generously as the youngsters plied their spoons. Fuji had arranged a series of scuppers, made of oilcloth, underneath the chairs; but in spite of this the dining-room rug, after

also by mental suggestion. "It is really remarkable" (he said to Fuji) "that children should give one so little trouble." As he made this remark, he was speeding hotly to and fro between the bathroom and the nursery, trying to get one tucked in bed and another undressed, while the third was lashing

hen I took this place there was n

thing explained beforehand. When Adam and Eve were put into

servant to stay. He offered to give Fuji a rais

cannot stand the-well, the aroma exhaled by thos

r wobbly black noses. Consider how pink is the little cleft between their toes and the main cushion of their feet. Their ears are like silk. Inside their upper jaws are pa

Fuji's eyes, but he left