ink what Mr. Ellins will say!

"There, there!" says Mr. Robert soothin'. "You were not to blame. I
will have someone see the fellow in the morning and settle the damage,
however. There's no need to trouble Father about it, none in the
least."

"Besides, Peggy," adds Dudley, "I'm the one the charge is made against.
So butt out."

Looked like it was all settled that way too, and that Old Hickory's
faith in his model wards wa'n't to be disturbed. But when we pulls up
at the house there he is, just goin' up the front steps.

"Ah!" says he, beamin'. "There you are, eh? And how has my little
Peggy been enjoying herself today?"

"Mr. Ellins," says she, lookin' him square in the eye, "you mustn't
call me your Peggy any more. I've just hit a man. He's in the
hospital."

"You--you hit someone!" gasps Old Hickory, starin' puzzled at her.
"What with?"

"Why, with the car," says she. "I was driving. Dudley tried to stop
me; but I was horrid about it. We had a regular fight over it. Then I
coaxed Henry to let me, and--and this happened. Don't listen to
Dudley. It was all my fault."

"Wow!" I whispers to Mr. Robert. "Now she's spilled the beans!"

Did she? Say, I wa'n't in on the fam'ly conference that follows, but I
gets the result from Mr. Robert next day, after he's been to court and
seen Dudley's case dismissed.

"No, the young folks haven't been sent away," says he. "In fact,
Father thinks more of them than ever. He's going to take 'em both
abroad with him next summer."

Wouldn't that smear you, though? Say, I wish someone would turn me
loose with a limousine!

CHAPTER VI

GLOOM SHUNTING FOR THE BOSS

Trouble? Say, it was comin' seven diff'rent ways there for
awhile,--our stocks on the slump, a quarterly bein' passed, Congress
actin' up, a lot of gloom rumors floatin' around about what was goin'
to happen to the tariff on steel, and the I Won't Workers pullin' off a
big strike at one of our busiest plants. But all these things was side
issues compared to this scrap that develops between Old Hickory and
Peter K. Groff.

Maybe you don't know about Peter K.? Well, he's the Mesaba agent of
Corrugated affairs, the big noise at the dirt end of the dividends.
It's Groff handles the ore proposition, you understand, and it's his
company that does the inter-locking act between the ore mines and us
and the railroads.

Course, I can't give you all the details without pullin' down a
subpoena