nning to eat
and speaking between bites. "This umbrella has been in our family
years, an' years, an' years. But it was tucked away up in our attic an'
no one ever used it 'cause it wasn't pretty."

"Don't blame 'em much," remarked Cap'n Bill, gazing at it curiously.
"It's a pretty old-lookin' bumbershoot." They were all seated in the
vine-shaded porch of the cottage--all but Mrs. Griffith, who had gone
into the kitchen to look after the supper--and Trot was on one side of
the boy, holding the plate for him, while Cap'n Bill sat on the other
side.

"It is old," said Button-Bright. "One of my great-great-grandfathers
was a Knight--an Arabian Knight--and it was he who first found this
umbrella."

"An Arabian Night!" exclaimed Trot. "Why, that was a magic night,
wasn't it?"

"There's diff'rent sorts o' nights, mate," said the sailor, "an' the
knight Button-Bright means ain't the same night you mean. Soldiers used
to be called knights, but that were in the dark ages, I guess, an'
likely 'nough Butt'n-Bright's great-gran'ther were that sort of a
knight."

"But he said an Arabian Knight," persisted Trot.

"Well, if he went to Araby, or was born there, he'd be an Arabian
Knight, wouldn't he? The lad's gran'ther were prob'ly a furriner, an'
yours an' mine were, too, Trot, if you go back far enough; for Ameriky
wasn't diskivered in them days."

"There!" said Trot triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you, Button-Bright,
that Cap'n Bill knows ever'thing?"

"He knows a lot, I expect," soberly answered the boy, finishing the
last slice of bread-and-butter and then looking at the empty plate with
a sigh. "But if he really knows ever'thing, he knows about the Magic
Umbrella, so I won't have to tell you anything about it."

"Magic!" cried Trot with big, eager eyes. "Did you say MAGIC Umbrel,
Button-Bright?"

"I said 'Magic.' But none of our family knew it was a Magic Umbrella
till I found it out for myself. You're the first people I've told the
secret to," he added, glancing into their faces rather uneasily.

"Glory me!" exclaimed the girl, clapping her hands in ecstacy. "It must
be jus' ELEGANT to have a Magic Umbrel!"

Cap'n Bill coughed. He had a way of coughing when he was suspicious.
"Magic," he observed gravely, "was once lyin' 'round loose in the
world. That was in the Dark Ages, I guess, when the magic Arabian
Nights was. But the light o' Civilization has skeered it away long ago,
an' magic's been a lost art since long