ined
hut.

As Uncle Noah carefully counted out the money required to purchase this
astonishing outlay the bulky proprietor tasked pleasantly: "Uncle Noah,
do you happen to know where I can get a good woman to scrub up my store
every morning?"

Uncle Noah fingered his scarfpin uncertainly. "How much do yoh pay foh
de work?" he queried.

"Fifty cents a day."

The negro leaned forward in tense expectancy. "Do yoh 'spect I could
do it?" he demanded excitedly.

The proprietor, secretly astonished by the old man's manner, nodded
assuringly. "Why, yes, you could easily; it's nothing much; but the
Colonel--"

"Colonel doan have foh to know," exclaimed Uncle Noah. "I comes yere
mornin's foh he's up--an I 'clare to goodness, sah, I needs de money
mos' powahful."

The proprietor was easy-going and too phlegmatic to harbor curiosity.
So the bargain was straightway sealed under a pledge of deepest secrecy.

Somewhat confused by the unusual series of events, Uncle Noah, his eyes
shining with a strange excitement, started for the door, quite
forgetting the countless packages on the counter.

The proprietor recalled him with a hearty laugh. "Uncle Noah," he
called, "you've forgotten one or two little bundles here."

With a smothered gasp the old negro hurried back. But try as they
would, room for all the numerous bundles could not be found. The
proprietor energetically tucked bundles into all of Uncle Noah's
pockets, piled them tower fashion upon his arms, and even hung a
collection bound together with a string over his shoulder, while Uncle
Noah wheezed and groaned and struggled to find new and unsuspected
storage space in his clothes, but still there remained bundles and
bundles at which Uncle Noah gazed over his spectacles in growing
discomfiture.

"Whut am I a-goin' to do?" he demanded. "I nevah can come all de way
hack yere in de snow wif dese yere ol' legs o' mine."

"Get one of them station cabs," advised the grocer; and so, after
considerable discussion, the bundle problem was solved.

Ten minutes later Uncle Noah entered a hired carriage for the first
time in his life. At the town florist's he rapped a timid signal to
the driver to stop, and, glowing with anticipation, spryly shuffled
into the warm, scented air of the little shop. Here, to the smiling
clerk's astonishment, he ordered a bunch of violets to be delivered
Christmas morning to "de young lady wif de gray eyes whut's at Major
Verney's."