Suddenly overcome with confusion, he dislodged a large-sized paper bag
from his side coat pocket and thrust it into Judge Priest's hands; then,
backing away, he turned and clumped down the graveled path in great and
embarrassed haste.

Judge Priest opened the bag and peered down into it.

It contained a sticky sugary dozen of flattened confections, each molded
round a short length of wooden splinter. These sirupy articles, which
have since come into quite general use, are known, I believe, as all-day
suckers.

When Judge Priest looked up again, Peep O'Day was outside the gate,
clumping down the uneven sidewalk of Clay Street with long strides of
his booted legs. Half a dozen small boys, who, it was evident, had
remained hidden during the ceremony of presentation, now mysteriously
appeared and were accompanying the departing donor, half trotting to
keep up with him.

LAUGHTER[7]

[Note 7: Copyright, 1917, by Harper and Brothers. Copyright, 1918,
by Charles Caldwell Dobie.]

BY CHARLES CALDWELL DOBIE

From _Harper's Magazine_

As Suvaroff neared his lodgings, he began to wonder whether the Italian
who had the room next him would continue to grind out tunes all night
upon his accordion. The thought made Suvaroff shudder. What in Heaven's
name possessed people to grind out tunes, Suvaroff found himself
inquiring, unless one earned one's living that way? Certainly this
weather-beaten Italian was no musician; he smelled too strongly of fish
for any one to mistake his occupation. He tortured melody from choice,
blandly, for the pure enjoyment of the thing. With Suvaroff it was
different; if he did not play, he did not eat.

Suvaroff's head had ached all day. The cafe where he scraped his violin
from early afternoon until midnight had never seemed so stuffy, so
tawdry, so impossible! All day he had sat and played and played, while
people ate and chattered and danced. No, that did not describe what
people did; they gorged and shrieked and gyrated like decapitated fowls,
accomplishing everything with a furious energy, primitive, abandoned,
disgusting. He wondered if he would ever again see people eat quietly
and simply, like normal human beings.

If only the Italian would go away, or decide to sleep, or die! Yes,
Suvaroff would have been glad to have found his neighbor quite
dead--anything to still that terrible accordion, which had been pumping
out tunes for over a week at all hours of the day and night! The