ing a saw; but I expect
it'll wilt down flat pretty soon, and not bother me long. I'm liable to
wilt down flat, myself, I expect; I don't know as I remember any such
hot night in the last ten or twelve years." He lifted his head and
sniffed the flaccid air, which was laden with a heavy odour. "My, but
that smell is pretty strong!" he said.

"Stand still, please, papa," Alice begged him. "I can't see what's the
matter if you move around. How absurd you are about your old glue smell,
papa! There isn't a vestige of it, of course."

"I didn't mean glue," he informed her. "I mean cabbage. Is that
fashionable now, to have cabbage when there's company for dinner?"

"That isn't cabbage, papa. It's Brussels sprouts."

"Oh, is it? I don't mind it much, because it keeps that glue smell off
me, but it's fairly strong. I expect you don't notice it so much because
you been in the house with it all along, and got used to it while it was
growing."

"It is pretty dreadful," Alice said. "Are all the windows open
downstairs?"

"I'll go down and see, if you'll just fix that hole up for me."

"I'm afraid I can't," she said. "Not unless you take your shirt off and
bring it to me. I'll have to sew the hole smaller."

"Oh, well, I'll go ask your mother to----"

"No," said Alice. "She's got everything on her hands. Run and take it
off. Hurry, papa; I've got to arrange the flowers on the table before he
comes."

He went away, and came back presently, half undressed, bringing the
shirt. "There's ONE comfort," he remarked, pensively, as she worked.
"I've got that collar off--for a while, anyway. I wish I could go to
table like this; I could stand it a good deal better. Do you seem to be
making any headway with the dang thing?"

"I think probably I can----"

Downstairs the door-bell rang, and Alice's arms jerked with the shock.

"Golly!" her father said. "Did you stick your finger with that fool
needle?"

She gave him a blank stare. "He's come!"

She was not mistaken, for, upon the little veranda, Russell stood facing
the closed door at last. However, it remained closed for a considerable
time after he rang. Inside the house the warning summons of the bell was
immediately followed by another sound, audible to Alice and her father
as a crash preceding a series of muffled falls. Then came a distant
voice, bitter in complaint.

"Oh, Lord!" said Adams. "What's that?"

Alice went to the top of the front stairs, and her mother appea