But Zoie," persisted Aggie, as she followed her young friend in
trepidation, "don't you realise that if you persist in keeping this
baby, that mother will dog Jimmy's footsteps for the rest of his life?"

"That will be nice," murmured Jimmy.

Zoie busied herself with her toilet, and turned a deaf ear to Aggie.
There was a touch of genuine emotion in Aggie's voice when she
continued.

"Just think of it, Zoie, Jimmy will never be able to come and go like a
free man again."

"What do I care how he comes and goes?" exclaimed Zoie impatiently. "If
Jimmy had gone when we told him to go, that woman would have had her old
baby by now; but he didn't, oh no! All he ever does is to sit around and
talk about his dinner."

"Yes," cried Jimmy hotly, "and that's about as far as I ever GET with
it."

"You'll never get anywhere with anything," was Zoie's exasperating
answer. "You're too slow."

"Well, there's nothing slow about you," retorted Jimmy, stung to a
frenzy by her insolence.

"Oh please, please," interposed Aggie, desperately determined to keep
these two irascible persons to the main issue. "What are we going to
tell that mother?"

"You can tell her whatever you like," answered Zoie, with an impudent
toss of her head, "but I'll NOT give up that baby until I get ANOTHER
one.'

"Another?" almost shrieked Jimmy. It was apparent that he must needs
increase the number of his brain cells if he were to follow this
extraordinary young woman's line of thought much further. "You don't
expect to go on multiplying them forever, do you?" he asked.

"YOU are the one who has been multiplying them," was Zoie's
disconcerting reply.

It was evident to Jimmy that he could not think fast enough nor clearly
enough to save himself from a mental disaster if he continued to argue
with the shameless young woman, so he contented himself by rocking to
and fro and murmuring dismally that he had "known from the first that it
was to be an endless chain."

While Zoie and Jimmy had been wrangling, Aggie had been weighing the
pros and cons of the case. She now turned to Jimmy with a tone of firm
but motherly decision. "Zoie is quite right," she said.

Jimmy rolled his large eyes up at his spouse with a "you too, Brutus,"
expression.

Aggie continued mercilessly, "It's the only way, Jimmy."

No sooner had Aggie arrived at her decision than Zoie upset her
tranquillity by a triumphant expression of "I have it."

Jimmy and Aggie gazed at Z