, and the chain mail t'
the knees, and the locks as bright as yer own! Well, I'm that glad t'
hear it! and that _excited_!"

Breathing a warning, Johnnie sped to the sink, rapped once, then twice,
then once again. A short wait, followed by soft pad-pads on the floor
overhead. Next down into sight at the window came the basket, filled to
the top with books.

At sight of the basket, for some reason Father Pat suddenly seemed
anxious; and as Johnnie drew it to the window sill, the priest pried
himself up out of the big chair. "Shure, 'tis divvlement!" he
pronounced. "Yet still 'tis grand! Only keep 'em all right there, lad
dear, and I'll come over t' be introduced."

Proudly and impressively Johnnie proffered first his _Aladdin_. Nodding
delightedly, the Father took it. "Yes, 'tis the very same Aladdin!" he
declared. "Ye know, I was afraid maybe the Aladdin I know and this one
were two diff'rent gentlemen. But, no!--Oh, in the beginnin' weren't ye
afraid, little reader dear, that this friend o' ours would end up wrong?
and be lazy and disobedient t' the last, gaddin' the streets when he
ought t' be helpin' his mamma?"

"But he turned out fine!" reminded Johnnie.

Now the other precious volumes had their introduction. And, "All
bread--_rale_ bread!" said the Father as he looked at them. "Not stones!
No!" But he handed them back rather too quickly, according to Johnnie's
idea. However, the latter was to know why at once; for with a sharp
glance toward the hall door, "Now, who d' ye think was sittin' on a step
in front o' the house as I came in--his dinner pail 'twixt his two
feet?" asked the priest. "The big ogre himself!"

"Oh!" The pipe rang to Johnnie's hurried knockings, which he repeated in
such a panic that Mrs. Kukor could be heard rocking about in excited
circles. And it seemed minutes (though it was not half of one) before
the basket-strings tightened and the books went jerking up to safety.
Then, "My! What if he'd walked in while they was down!" Johnnie
exclaimed. "And why didn't he go t' work? What's he waitin' for?"

They had the same explanation at the same moment. _Mr. Perkins!_ So what
might not happen, down there in the area, when the longshoreman, lying
in wait for his victim, stopped the giver of bouquets?

Something besides the heat of midday made Johnnie feel very weak of a
sudden, so that he had to sit down. "Now, shush! shush!" comforted the
Father. "Shure, and the ogre'll not be eatin' up anny