u this evenin'?"

Apparently there was, for the child, untucking the doll from
beneath her right arm and tucking it under the left, pointed her
right hand at a wooden weather-vane in the shape of a sperm whale
and asked:

"Please, does that fish go 'round?"

"Go 'round? Go 'round where?"

"I mean does it go 'round and 'round on a stick?"

"Cal'late it does when it has a chance."

"And does it make the wind blow no'theast by no'th and--and like
that?"

"Eh? Make the wind blow--how?"

"I mean does it make the wind blow different ways, no'theast by
no'th and cantin' 'round to the sou-east and--and those ways?
Captain Hedge has got a fish up on his barn that used to do that,
but now it won't 'cause he cal'lates it's rusted fast. He said he
guessed he would have to be getting a new one. When I saw the
fishes out in your yard I thought about it and I thought I would
come in and see if you had the right kind. Is this one a--a
gunfish?"

"A WHICH fish?"

"A gunfish. No, that isn't it. A--a swordfish, that's it.
Captain Hedge's is a swordfish."

"We-ll, that particular one got a wrong start and ended up by bein'
a whale, but I shouldn't wonder if we could find a swordfish if we
looked. Yes, here's one. Think that would do?"

The child looked it over very carefully.

"Yes," she said, "I think it would. If you're sure it would make
the wind go right."

"We-ll, I guess likely I could guarantee that fish would go 'most
any way the wind did, unless it should take a notion to blow
straight up and down, which don't happen often. So you know Cap'n
Hedge, do you? Relation of his, are you? Visitin' there?"

"No. Mamma and I are boarding at Mrs. Smalley's, but I go over to
call on Captain Hedge 'most every day."

"Sho! Want to know! Well, that's nice and sociable. So you're
boardin' at Luretta Smalley's. My! you're consider'ble ways from
home, ain't you? Is your mamma with you?"

For the first time the youthful caller's poise seemed a trifle
shaken.

"No-o . . . no," she stammered, and added, hastily: "How much is
this fish, please?"

"I generally sell that sort of fish for about two dollars." He
looked out of the window, hummed a tune, and then added: "Let's
see, what did you say your name was?"

"I didn't, but it's Barbara Armstrong. HOW much did you say the
fish was?"

"Eh? . . . Oh, two dollars."

Miss Armstrong looked very much disappointed.

"Oh, dear," she sighed. "I didn't k