ht here. Best set 'em down, an' get around an'
hand 'em your talk."

But the worried father pushed his weedy hair off his forehead with a
troubled air.

"I haven't read up a deal," he apologized.

The gambler promptly swept his objection aside.

"That don't figger any. Once you get goin' you won't find no trouble.
It's dead easy after you're started. That's the way it is with
passons. They jest get a holt of a notion, an' then--why, they jest
yarn."

"I see," replied Scipio doubtfully, while the other men gathered
round. "But," he went on more weakly still, "'bout that notion?"

Bill stirred impatiently.

"That's it. You start right in with the notion."

"Course," cried Sandy. "The notion's easy. Why, ther's heaps o' things
you ken take as a notion. Say, wa'an't ther' a yarn 'bout some blamed
citizen what took to a cave, an' the checkens an' things got busy
feedin' him?"

"Ravens," said Sunny.

"Ravens nuthin'," cried the indignant Sandy. "Checkens of the air,
they was."

Sunny shrugged.

"That ain't no sort o' Bible talk, anyway," he protested. "You need
suthin' what gives 'em a lesson. Now, ther's Nore an' his floatin'
ranch--"

"That wa'an't a ranch neither," contradicted Sandy promptly. "It was
jest a barn."

"Ark," said Toby.

"Wal, ark then," admitted Sandy. He didn't mind Toby's interference.

But the discussion was allowed to go no further. Bill's impatience
manifested itself promptly.

"Say, it don't matter a cuss whether it was an ark or a barn or a
ranch. Sunny's yarn goes. Now, jest set around an' git the kids in the
middle, an' you, Zip, git busy with this Nore racket."

The last authority had given its decision. There was no more to be
said, and the matter was promptly proceeded with. The expectant
children, who had stood by listening to the discussion of their
elders, were now seated on the grass, and before them sat the board of
Scriptural instruction. Bill remained in his position on the
tree-trunk. On the ground, cross-legged, sat Scipio, on his right.
Sunny lounged full length upon the ground next to him. Sandy and Toby
formed the other horn of the half-circle on the gambler's left.

It was a quaint picture upon which the warm noon sun shone down. The
open grass clearing, surrounded with tall dense bushes. On one side
the wash-tub and the various appurtenances of the bath, with the creek
a little way beyond. And in the open, sitting alone, side by side,
their little pink bo