see and inquire. In fact the
Precious Ones really embarrassed us sometimes when, on warm Sunday
afternoons, where people were sitting out on the shady steps, they would
pause eagerly in front of the sign "To Let" with: "Oh, papa, look!
Seven rooms and bath! Oh, mamma, let's go in and see them! Oh, please,
mamma! Please, papa!"

At such times we hurried by, oblivious to their importunities, but when
the situation was less trying we only too frequently yielded, and each
time with less and less reluctance.

It was in the early fall that we moved again,--into a sunny corner flat
on a second floor that we strayed into during one of these rambles, and
became ensnared by its clean, new attractions. We said that it would be
better for winter, and that we were tired of four long flight of stairs.
But, alas, by spring every thing was out of order from the electric bell
at the entrance to the clothes-lines on the roof, while janitors came
and went like Punch and Judy figures. Most of the time we had none, and
some that we had were better dead. So we moved when the birds came back,
but it was a mistake, and on the Fourth of July we celebrated by moving
again.

We now called ourselves "van-dwellers," the term applied by landlord and
agent to those who move systematically and inhabit the moving-man's
great trundling house no less than four to six times a year. I am not
sure, however, that we ever really earned the title. The true
"van-dweller" makes money by moving and getting free rent, while I fear
the wear and tear on our chattels more than offset any advantage we ever
acquired in this particular direction.

I can think of no reason now for having taken our next flat except that
it was different from any of those preceding. Still, it was better than
the summer board we selected from sixty answers to our advertisement,
and after eighteen minutes' experience with a sweltering room and an
aged and apoplectic dog whose quarters we seemed to have usurped, we
came back to it like returning exiles.

It was a long time before we moved again--almost four months. Then the
Little Woman strayed into another new house, and was captivated by a
series of rooms that ran merrily around a little extension in a manner
that allowed the sun to shine into every window.

We had become connoisseurs by this time. We could tell almost the exact
shape and price of an apartment from its outside appearance. After one
glance inside we could carry the p