o?"

"Why, she can run," I said. "I don't want one that can run."

"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Hogan, with a sigh, "they all begin to run, very
airly. Now Polly isn't owld, at all, at all."

"I can see that," said I, "but I want one that you can put in a
cradle--one that will have to stay there, when you put it in."

It was plain that Mrs. Hogan's present stock did not contain exactly
what I wanted, and directly Mrs. Duffy exclaimed! "There's Mary
McCann--an' roight across the way!"

Mrs. Hogan said "Yis, sure," and we all went over to a little house,
opposite.

"Now, thin," said Mrs. Duffy, entering the house, and proudly drawing a
small coverlid from a little box-bed in a corner, "what do you think of
that?"

"Why, there are two of them," I exclaimed.

"To be sure," said Mrs. Duffy. "They're tweens. There's always two uv
em, when they're tweens. An' they're young enough."

"Yes," said I, doubtfully, "but I couldn't take both. Do you think their
mother would rent one of them?"

The women shook their heads. "Ye see, sir," said Mrs. Hogan, "Mary
McCann isn't here, bein' gone out to a wash, but she ownly has four or
foive childther, an' she aint much used to 'em yit, an' I kin spake fer
her that she'd niver siparate a pair o' tweens. When she gits a dozen
hersilf, and marries a widow jintleman wid a lot uv his own, she'll
be glad enough to be lettin' ye have yer pick, to take wan uv 'em fer
coompany to yer own baby, at foive dollars a week. Moind that."

I visited several houses after this, still in company with Mrs. Hogan
and Mrs. Duffy, and finally secured a youngish infant, who, having been
left motherless, had become what Mrs. Duffy called a "bottle-baby," and
was in charge of a neighboring aunt. It seemed strange that this child,
so eminently adapted to purposes of rental, was not offered to me, at
first, but I suppose the Irish ladies, who had the matter in charge,
wanted to benefit themselves, or some of their near friends, before
giving the general public of New Dublin a chance.

The child suited me very well, and I agreed to take it for as many days
as I might happen to want it, but to pay by the week, in advance. It was
a boy, with a suggestion of orange-red bloom all over its head, and what
looked, to me, like freckles on its cheeks; while its little nose turned
up, even more than those of babies generally turn--above a very long
upper lip. His eyes were blue and twinkling, and he had the very mouth
"f