Athalie

eyes on her baby she knew it was

matter with i

the matter. In point of fact he had been admiring the n

y make 'em," he concluded, pla

daughter with a curious, questioning expression. She had never gazed at any of her other children so uneasi

the office to the veranda, and occasionally entirely around the exterior of

He was a little man and mild, and he did not look as though he had been cr

and the brown earth grows green over night-when the hot spring sun draws vapours from the soil, an

his business partner, Archer B. Ledlie leisurely digging for bait in the barn-yard

resting one soil-incru

l," admitted

squirming angle-worm from the edge of the shallow

nquired Greensleev

r boy Jack seen a tr

, picked a budding sprig from a bush, nibbled it, and gravely seated himself on the edge of the horse-trough. He was

, resting one soil-incr

oachfully out across the salt meadows beyond the causeway. "The

hem," said Greens

ey'll git married an' go off some'rs. There ain't nothin

it and rolling it from one side of his small, thin-lipped mouth to the other. His thin little partner brooded in the sunshine.

Archie," he vol

n closed there ain't been no business except them s

commercial men

They can go to the other place next time," whic

come your kids, Pete. I guess I'l

four, Doris, three, and Catharine, two; and they broke into a run when they caught

re a new baby?" shouted Jack

boy?" shrilled Doris as she and baby Catharine

mildly. "You'd better go into

ontemptuously. "What d

dn't want any more girls around. Wh

elieve," he s

nd of name is tha

wanted it in case t

d frightfully, and they all instantly turned their eyes on him to discover if possible the solitary tooth wi

as soon as speech became possible. "Ai

erely found him unsympathetic, and therefo

is father: "I nearly caught a snake u

pes," said D

ittle Catharine, and her

s he, papa?"

e," replied Gree

ointment; dawning expectancy faded; it was the old,

ted to keep him for a pet. I wanted to know

Ledlie, "you pet him on

ha

n into 'em. You kill every one y

lay stunned after its headlong collision with

papa?" he a

eensleeve. "Mr. Ledlie knows

on't git no supper if you ain't cleaned up f

y said what anybod

e added; "your po

azing inquiringly up at the curtained window of the

round on the

" he s

el

what her

hal