you come t' lose your eye?"

"My eye?"--Grandpa's habit again. "Wal, this is how"-- He frowned with
the eye he had left, and pursed his lips till his mustache stood out
fearsomely.

"Yes?" encouraged Johnnie, whose mind was picturing all sorts of
exciting events in which the tall man, as the hero, fought and was
injured, yet conquered his enemies.

"Sonny," the other went on sadly, "I jes' natu'lly got my eye pinched in
the door."

Pinched in the door! Johnnie stared. _Pinched in the door?_ How could
that happen? What might a man be doing that such an accident should come
to pass? He put his free hand to one of his own eyes, fingering it
inquiringly.

Before he could come to any conclusion, the one-eyed man had halted
before the blazing, glassed-in front of a restaurant that fairly dazzled
the sight. It was, as Johnnie saw, such a place as only millionaires
could afford to frequent. In the very front of it, behind that plate
window, stood men in white, wearing spotless caps, who were cooking
things in plain view of the street. And inside--for the one-eyed man now
boldly opened a door and entered, drawing Johnnie after him--were more
men in white, and women similarly garbed. The high walls of the great
room were white too, like the hall of a sultan's palace. And seated at
long tables were splendidly attired men and women, enjoying their supper
as calmly as if all this magnificence were nothing to them--nothing,
though the tables were of marble!

However, every man and woman in the wonderful place showed marked
excitement on the appearance of Johnnie and his escort. They stopped
eating. And how they stared! They bent to all sides, whispering. For a
moment, Johnnie felt sure that, ragged as he was, the palace did not
want him, and that he was about to be ordered out. He hung back, wishing
with all his heart that he had done his hanging back earlier, outside
the door, for instance.

Then, relief; for he recognized that all the interest was kindly. One of
the ladies in white--a beautiful, stately person--showed them grandly to
chairs at either side of a table; a second lady brought them each a
glass of ice water, and condescended to listen to their wants in the
supper line. About them people smiled cordially.

The one-eyed man was now bareheaded. And Johnnie, just as he was leaning
back, prepared to enjoy himself to the full, suddenly noted, and with a
pang, that his host, shorn of his headgear, was far less attra