ise that a lot of pampered, sedentary
children ever get!"

"P--Pampered?" gasped the Lady. "S--Sed--entary?" As though her head was
bursting with the noises all around the room she clapped her hands over
her ears.

Our Uncle Peter jumped up from his chair and began to chase the little
tin railroad train. It looked funny to see so large a man running after
so small a train. When he caught it it was having a railroad accident in
the tunnel under the table where a book had fallen on the track. Like a
beetle with no paint on its stomach he left it lying on its back with
its little wheels kicking in the air.

"If only all the racket was as easily disposed of!" said the Lady.

"It IS!" said our Uncle Peter.

Like turning off faucets of water he turned off the noises one by
one,--the window-breeze that made the glass dangles tinkle,--the funny
jiggly spring that kept the toy bird screaming "Hi-Hi" in its wicker
cake,--the music box that tooted horns and beat drums right in the
middle of its best tunes! He looked like a giant stalking through the
Noah's Ark animals! His foot was longer than the village store!

"If only I figured as largely in a less miniature world!" he said.

He looked at the Lady very hard when he said it as though he was saying
something very important.

The Lady didn't seem to consider it important at all. She looked at her
skirts instead and smoothed them very tidily.

"It's a--It's a pleasant day--isn't it?" said our Uncle Peter.

"V--very," said the Lady. Quite suddenly she looked up at him. Her
cheeks were pink. She seemed to want to speak but didn't know quite how.
She looked more surprised than ever. She bent forward very suddenly and
stared and stared at him.

"Why--Why you're the gentleman," she said, "who was in the Fruit Store
the day I bought the Alligator pears and dropped my pocket-book down
behind the trash-barrel?"

"Also the day you bought the Red Mackintosh Apples," said our Uncle
Peter. "The Grocer cheated you outrageously on them.--Also the day you
wore the bunch of white violets and pricked your finger so
brutally,--also the day on the ferry when there was a slight collision
with a tug-boat and I had the privilege of--of----."

The Lady looked very haughty.

"It was the day of the Alligator Pears--that I referred to," she said.
"The only day in my recollection!" Very positively she said it,--"the
only day in my recollection." But all the time that she said it her
cheeks