yed
until the water on the cookstove had boiled away. What with Sandy's
love of debate and Sunny's indolence, the visit of these men might
have been prolonged for hours. As it was, in five minutes after Bill's
appearance upon the scene the cortege was ready to set out for the
water's edge; and not only ready, but more than willing to submit the
all-unconscious twins to the combination of their inexperienced
efforts in matters ablutionary. The one saving clause for the poor
little creatures was the presence of their father and a man of
practical intelligence such as the gambler. How they might have fared
at the hands of the others is a matter best not contemplated too
closely.

At a word from Wild Bill the procession set out. Scipio headed it,
with a child clinging to each hand, doddling along at his side all
blissfully unconscious, but delighted at going whither their elders
led them. Vada babbled with delight, and kept up a fire of chattering
questions in a truly feminine manner, while little Jamie, stolid but
no less joyous, devoured everything with hungry, thoughtful eyes, and
punctuated his sister's remarks with characteristic grunts, and an
occasional emphatic ejaculation and protest at the yellow pup, who
would lick his dirty legs.

Behind these came Sandy Joyce, the picture of absurd dignity, as he
vainly strove to carry the boiler of water without scalding himself.
Toby came immediately behind him, with the bundle of laundry, a
tumbled mass in his arms, crushed firmly to his stout chest, lest, by
any ill-fate, he should drop any of the strange garments, which looked
so absurdly small in his ignorant eyes.

Next came Sunny with the cleansing properties, which he carried
gingerly, as though the very nature of them were repugnant to him, and
the labor of carrying them an offense to his creed of life. The soap
particularly troubled him. Its slippery nature made him drop it
several times, till it seemed almost as though it resented him
personally, and was trying to escape from the insult of such
association. Wild Bill brought up the rear of the column, bearing the
bright tin dippers, which clattered violently as they swung together
on their string loops. He suggested nothing so much as a herder
driving before him his unusual flock by the aid of a violent rattling
on tin cans.

Solemnly the procession wound its way down the hill. Only the voices
of the children, the yapping of the pup and the clatter of tinware