eanuts, of candy, of popcorn, of all known sweetmeats,
perchance; and forced their way to the lemonade stands; and there, all
shyly, silently sipped the crimson-stained ambrosia. Everywhere the
hawkers dinned, and everywhere was heard the plaintive squawk of the toy
balloon.

But over all rose the nasal cadence of the Cheap John, reeking oratory
from his big wagon on the corner: "Walk up, walk up, walk up, ladies and
gents! Here we are! Here we are! Make hay while we gather the moss. Walk
up, one and all. Here I put this solid gold ring, sumptuous and golden,
eighteen carats, eighteen golden carats of the priceless mother of
metals, toiled fer on the wild Pacific slope, eighteen garnteed, I put
this golden ring, rich and golden, in the package with the hangkacheef,
the elegant and blue-ruled note-paper, self-writing pens, pencil and
penholder. Who takes the lot? Who takes it, ladies and gents?"

His tongue curled about his words; he seemed to love them. "Fer a
quat-of-a-dollah! Don't turn away, young man--you feller in the green
necktie, there. We all see the young lady on your arm is a-langrishing
fer the golden ring and the package. Faint heart never won fair wummin'.
There you are, sir, and you'll never regret it. Go--and be happy! Now,
who's the next man to git solid with his girl fer a quat-of-a-dollah?
Life is a mysterus and unviolable shadder, my friends; who kin read its
orgeries? To-day we are here--but to-morrow we may be in jail. Only
a quat-of-a-dollah! We are Seventh-Day Adventists, ladies and gents,
a-givin' away our belongings in the awful face of Michael, fer a
quat-of-a-dollah. The same price fer each-an-devery individual, lady and
gent, man, wummin, wife and child, and happiness to one and all fer a
quat-of-a-dollah!"

Down the middle of the street, kept open between the waiting crowd, ran
barefoot boys, many of whom had not slept at home, but had kept vigil in
the night mists for the coming of the show, and, having seen the muffled
pageant arrive, swathed, and with no pomp and panoply, had returned to
town, rioting through jewelled cobwebs in the morning fields, happy in
the pride of knowledge of what went on behind the scenes. To-night, or
to-morrow, the runaways would face a woodshed reckoning with outraged
ancestry; but now they caracoled in the dust with no thought of the grim
deeds to be done upon them.

In the court-house yard, and so sinning in the very eye of the law,
two swarthy, shifty-l