s
a-ticklin' me so I can't hardly set still."

Evelyn was absolutely speechless with surprise, as mammy continued by
snatches her whispered explanation:

"Des 'fo' we lef' I went 'n' lif' up ole Muffly ter see how de eggs was
comin' orn, an' dis heah egg was pipped out, an' de little risindenter
look like he eyed me so berseechin' I des nachelly couldn't leave 'im.
Look like he knowed he warn't righteously in de morgans, an' 'e crave
ter clair out an' trabble. I did hope speech wouldn't come ter 'im tell
we got off'n deze heah train kyars."

A halt at a station brought a momentary silence, and right here arose
again, clear and shrill, the chicken's cry.

Mammy was equal to the emergency. After glancing inquiringly up and down
the coach, she exclaimed, aloud, "Some'h'n' in dis heah kyar soun' des
like a vintrilloquer."

"That's just what it is," said an old gentleman opposite, peering around
over his spectacles. "And whoever you are, sir, you've been amusing
yourself for an hour."

Mammy's ruse had succeeded, and during the rest of the journey, although
the chicken developed duly as to vocal powers, the only question asked
by the curious was, "Who can the ventriloquist be?"

Evelyn could hardly maintain her self-control, the situation was so
utterly absurd.

"I does hope it's a pullet," mammy confided later; "but I doubts it. Hit
done struck out wid a mannish movemint a'ready. Muffly's eggs allus
hatches out sech invig'rous chickens. I gwine in the dressin'-room,
baby, an' wrop 'im up ag'in. Feel like he done kicked 'isse'f loose."

Though she made several trips to the dressing-room in the interest of
her hatchling, mammy's serene face held no betrayal of the disturbing
secret of her bosom.

At last the journey was over. The train crept with a tired motion into
the noisy depot. Then came a rattling ride over cobble-stones, granite,
and unpaved streets; a sudden halt before a low-browed cottage; a
smiling old lady stepping out to meet them; a slam of the front
door--they were at home in New Orleans.

Madame Le Duc seemed to have forgotten nothing that their comfort
required, and in many ways that the creole gentlewoman understands so
well she was affectionately and unobtrusively kind. And yet, in the life
Evelyn was seeking to enter, Madame could give her no aid. About all
these new ideas of women--ladies--going out as bread-winners, Madame
knew nothing. For twenty years she had gone only to the cathedral, t