eflected. "She'll keep us busy, I daresay."

It was a circumstance perhaps worthy of mention that he never spoke of
the little creature as "it."

"She'll need a good deal of looking after," he went on. "It won't do to
let her tumble around and take care of herself, as a boy might. We must
be tender of her."

He bent forward and drew the cover cautiously over the red flannel
sleeve.

"They think it a good joke, those fellows," he said; "but it isn't a joke
with us, is it, young woman? We've a pretty big job to engineer between
us, but I daresay we shall come out all right. We shall be good friends
in the end, and that's a pretty nice thing for a lonely fellow to look
forward to."

Then he arose stealthily and returned to the kitchen.

"I want you to tell me," he said to Mornin, "what she needs. I suppose
she needs something or other."

"She needs mos' ev'rything, Mars Tom," was the answer; "seems like she
hain't bin pervided fer 't all, no more 'n ef she was a-gwine ter be a
youn' tukky dat de Lord hisself hed fitted out at de start."

"Well," said Tom, "I'll go to Barnesville to-morrow and talk to Judge
Rutherford's wife about it. She'll know what she ought to have."

And, after a few moments given to apparently agreeable reflection, he
went back to the room he had left.

He had barely seated himself, however, when he was disturbed by a
low-sounding tap on the side door, which stood so far open as to allow of
any stray evening breeze entering without reaching the corner of the
chimney.

"Come in!" said Tom, not in a friendly roar, as usual, but in a
discreetly guarded voice.

The door was pushed gently open and the visitor stood revealed, blinking
with an impartial air at the light within.

"Don't push it wide open," said Tom; "come in if you are going to, and
leave it as it was."

Mr. Stamps obeyed without making any noise whatever. It was one of his
amiable peculiarities that he never made any noise, but appeared and
disappeared without giving any warning, making himself very agreeable
thereby at inopportune moments. He slipped in without a sound, deftly
left the door in its previous position, and at once slipped into a chair,
or rather took possession of one, by balancing himself on the extreme
edge of it, arranging his legs on the lower bar with some dexterity.

"Howdy?" he said, meekly, having accomplished this.

Tom's manner was not cordial. He stretched himself, put his hands in his
pockets,