a good game to be in on, seein' there wa'n't any
objections from any of the fam'lies. Made me feel bright and chirky, just
to see 'em there, so that night at dinner I cut loose with some real cute
joshes for the benefit of the young people. You know how easy it is to be
humorous on them occasions. Honest, I must have come across with some of
the snappiest I had in stock, and I was watchin' for the girls to pink up
and accuse me of bein' an awful kidder, when all of a sudden I tumbles to
the fact that I ain't holdin' my audience.

Say, they'd started up a couple of conversations on their own hook--kind
of side issue, soft pedal dialogues--and they wa'n't takin' the slightest
notice of my brilliant efforts. At the other end of the table Sadie is
havin' more or less the same experience; for every time she tries to cut
in with some cheerful observation she finds she's addressin' either
Marjorie's left shoulder or Bobbie's right.

"Eh, Sadie?" says I across the centerpiece. "What was that last of
yours?"

"It doesn't matter," says she. "Shall we have coffee in the library,
girls, or outside! I say, Helen, shall we have---- I beg pardon, Helen,
but would you prefer----"

"What we seem to need most, Sadie," says I as she gives it up, "is a
table megaphone."

Nobody hears this suggestion, though, not even Sadie. I was lookin' for
the fun to begin after dinner,--the duets and the solos and the
quartets,--but the first thing Sadie and I know we are occupyin' the
libr'y all by ourselves, with nothing doing in the merry music line.

"Of course," says she, "they want a little time by themselves."

"Sure!" says I. "Half-hour out for the reunion."

It lasts some longer, though. At the end of an hour I thinks I'll put in
the rest of the wait watchin' the moon come up out of Long Island Sound
from my fav'rite corner of the veranda; but when I gets there I finds
it's occupied.

"Excuse me," says I, and beats it around to the other side, where there's
a double rocker that I can gen'rally be comfortable in. Hanged if I
didn't come near sittin' slam down on the second pair, that was snuggled
up close there in the dark!

"Aha!" says I in my best comic vein. "So here's where you are, eh? Fine
night, ain't it?"

There's a snicker from the young lady, a grunt from the young gent; but
nothing else happens in the way of a glad response. So I chases back into
the house.

"It's lovely out, isn't it?" says Sadie.

"Yes," says I; "bu