ed, occupy nearly twice as much space as
before, even if the former contains a blacking-box not usually kept in
it, and the latter contains a few cigars soaking in bay rum. The same
might be said of a portable dressing-case and its contents, bought for
me in Vienna by a brother ex-soldier, and designed by an old
continental campaigner to be perfection itself. The straps which
prevented the cover from falling entirely back had been cut, broken or
parted in some way, and in its hollow lay my dresscoat, tightly rolled
up. Snatching it up with a violent exclamation, and unrolling it, there
dropped from it--one of those infernal dolls. At the same time a howl
was sounded from the doorway.

"You tookted my dolly out of her cradle--I want to wock my
dolly--oo--oo--oo--ee--ee--ee--"

"You young scoundrel," I screamed--yes, howled, I was so enraged--"I've
a great mind to cut your throat this minute. What do you mean by
meddling with my trunk?"

"I--doe--know." Outward turned Toddie's lower lip; I believe the sight
of it would move a Bengal tiger to pity, but no such thought occurred
to me just then.

"What made you do it?"

"BE--cause."

"Because what?"

"I--doe--know."

Just then a terrific roar arose from the garden. Looking out, I saw
Budge with a bleeding finger upon one hand, and my razor in the other;
he afterward explained he had been making a boat, and that knife was
bad to him. To apply adhesive plaster to the cut was the work of but a
minute, and I had barely completed this surgical operation when Tom's
gardener-coachman appeared and handed me a letter. It was addressed in
Helen's well-known hand, and read as follows (the passages in brackets
were my own comments):--

"BLOOMDALE, June 21, 1875.

"DEAR HARRY:--I'm very happy in the thought that you are with my
darling children, and, although I'm having a lovely time here, I often
wish I was with you. [Ump--so do I.] I want you to know the little
treasures real well. [Thank you, but I don't think I care to extend the
acquaintanceship farther than is absolutely necessary.] It seems to me
so unnatural that relatives know so little of those of their own blood,
and especially of the innocent little spirits whose existence is almost
unheeded. [Not when there's unlocked trunks standing about, sis.]

"Now I want to ask a favor of you. When we were boys and girls at home,
you used to talk perfect oceans about physiognomy, and phrenology, and
unerring signs of c