on me, sor, and gin I
shlape it over, I'm a good man in between, sor, but that one time, sor,
Mulqueen was sint to Lunnon, sor, and I missed me shlape fer mischief.

"Well, thinks I, I'll go to Meriky and see me Johnny, me youngest; most
loike they're more used to the shlapin' spells out there where all is
free; but they wasn't! Johnny's a sheriff and got money wid his woman,
and she's no place in her house fit fer the old man resting the drap
off. So he gives me money to go home first class, and says he'll sind
another bit along to Kathy fer me keepin'.

"This was come Easter, and bad cess, one o' me shlapes was due, and so
I've footed it to get a job to take me back to Kathy. If I could strike
a port just right, Hiven might get me home between times in a cattle
boat.

"I'm that well risted now I could do good work if I had full feed, maybe
till Michaelmas. Hiven rest ye, sor, but have ye ever a job o' garden
work now on yer estate, sor, that would kape me until I got the bit to
cross to Kathy?"

As Bart hesitated, I burst forth, "Have you ever tended flowers, Larry?"

"Flowers, me leddy?--that's what I did fer his Riverence, indoors and
out, and dressed them fer the shows, mem, and not few's the prize money
we took. His Riverence, he called a rose for Kathy, that is to say
Kathleen; 'twas that big 'twould hide yer face. Flowers, is it? Well, I
don't know!"

Bart, meanwhile, had made a plan, telling Larry that he would draw a cup
of tea and give him something to eat, while he thought the matter over.
He soon had the poor fellow wrapped in an old blanket and snoring
comfortably in the straw, while, as the rain had stopped and dawn began
to show the outlines of Opal Farm, Bart suggested that I had best go
indoors and finish my broken sleep, while he had a chance to scrutinize
Larry by daylight before committing himself.

When he rejoined me several hours later for an indoor breakfast, for it
had turned to rain again and promised several days of the saturate
weather that makes even a mountain camp utterly dreary, he brought me
the news that Larry was to work for me especially, beginning on the rose
bed,--that he would lodge with Amos Opie and take his meals with
Anastasia, who thinks it likely that they are cousins on the mothers'
side, as they are both of the same parish and name. The _exact_ way of
our meeting with him need not be dwelt upon domestically, for the sake
of discipline, as he will have more self-re