les and the trappings of the horses and the
shields of the knights. Piercingly sweet, across the fields of blowing
clover, came the even song of a feathered chorister, and_--what on earth
was that noise?

Harlan went to the window impatiently, like one wakened from a dream by a
blind impulse of action.

The village stage, piled high with trunks, was at his door, and from the
cavernous depths of the vehicle, shrieks of juvenile terror echoed and
re-echoed unceasingly. Mr. Blake, driving, merely waited in supreme
unconcern.

"What in the hereafter," muttered Harlan, savagely. "More old lovers of
Dorothy's, I suppose, or else the--Good Lord, it's twins!"

A child of four or five fell out of the stage, followed by another, who
lit unerringly on top of the prostrate one. In the meteoric moment of the
fall, Harlan had seen that the two must have discovered America at about
the same time, for they were exactly alike, making due allowance for the
slight difference made by masculine and feminine attire.

An enormous doll, which to Harlan's troubled sight first appeared to be an
infant in arms, was violently ejected from the stage and added to the
human pile which was wriggling and weeping upon the gravelled walk. A cub
of seven next leaped out, whistling shrilly, then came a querulous,
wailing, feminine voice from the interior.

"Willie," it whined, "how can you act so? Help your little brother and
sister up and get Rebbie's doll."

To this the lad paid no attention whatever, and the mother herself
assorted the weeping pyramid on the walk. Harlan ran downstairs, feeling
that the hour had come to defend his hearthstone from outsiders. Dick and
Dorothy were already at the door.

"Foundlings' Home," explained Dick, briefly, with a wink at Harlan.
"They're late this year."

Dorothy was speechless with amazement and despair. Before Harlan had begun
to think connectedly, one of the twins had darted into the house and
bumped its head on the library door, thereupon making the Jack-o'-Lantern
hideous with much lamentation.

The mother, apparently tired out, came in as though she had left something
of great value there and had come to get it, pausing only to direct Harlan
to pay the stage driver, and have her trunks taken into the rooms opening
off the dining-room on the south side.

Willie took a mouth-organ out of his pocket and rendered a hitherto
unknown air upon it with inimitable vigour. In the midst of the confusion,