d fad. Yes, sir;
let contemporaneous man seek to untangle your skein and you flatter him.
Now, listen."

He read his paper, making alterations from time to time, marking out
small words and writing in larger ones; and when he was done he looked
at his visitor with a smile.

"It catches me," said Milford. "I don't know anything about it, but I'm
caught all the same. Have you read it to the ladies?"

"What!" gasped the Professor. "Read it to them? They would scoff at me,
not because they would catch its pretentious weakness, but because I
wrote it--because I am a failure. And now, sir, do you know I begin to
fall down, as the idiomatics would have it? Yes, sir, I am weakening."

"How so?"

"Why, I've hardly got the nerve to take it to that woman. She hasn't
said so, but I know she wants it. When do you expect to see her again?"

"I don't know."

"Now let me see. Would you mind taking this thing along and handing it
to her the next time you see her? It would be one of the greatest favors
you could do me. You can explain; I'll trust you for that. It is my only
recourse; my hope has been built on it, and if I fail I swear I--but I
must not fail. You remember I told you that I did something once to help
out the amount, something that would cause you to hate me. I will tell
you what it was. It was a mean trick--dastardly--but I had to do it. A
dog came to my house, a handsome dog with a brass collar. And what did I
do? I sneaked that dog off and sold him for six dollars. Now you'll hate
me."

"Give me the paper," said Milford, reaching for it. "Don't say another
word. Give it to me. I don't know you very well as knowing men goes, but
you are kind to me, and I want to put my arm around you. I said down
there that money was everything. But it isn't. There's something
better--to find a kinsman in the wilderness. She shall take this thing.
She's got to. If she doesn't, I'll take it to her husband." He put his
arm about the Professor. Tears streamed from the old man's eyes. "There,
it's all right. I'll go over there now. If she won't have it, I'll take
the train for town. I'm going now."

"Wait a moment," said the Professor, wiping his eyes. "I must not go
down this way. Let me recover myself. You have touched my heart, and,
poor withered thing, it is fluttering. Just a moment. Now we'll go."

He led the way down the stairs. "I wish you could stay longer," he said
cheerily, "but you know your own affairs. My dear, Mr. M