rning, Sam Slawson tried to
prepare Ma and Miss Lang for the more than probable appearance, during
the day, of the officer of the law, he predicted Friedrich Langbein
would have engaged to prosecute Martha.

"He has a clear case against you, mother, no doubt o' that. You'd no
business in his place at all, let alone that you assaulted an' battered
him. He can make it hot for us, an' I don't doubt he will."

Mrs. Slawson attended with undivided care to the breakfast needs of such
of her flock as still remained to be fed. The youngsters had all
vanished.

"If he wants to persecute me, let him persecute me. I guess I
got a tongue in my head. I can tell the judge a thing or two which,
bein' prob'ly a mother himself, he'll see the sense of. Do you think
I want Sammy growin' up under my very eyes, a beer-drinkin'
wife-beater?--because he seen the eggsample of it set before'm by a
Dutchman, when he was a boy? Such things makes an impression on the
young--which they ain't sense enough to know the difference between a
eggsample an' a warnin'. An' the girls, too! As I told you las' night,
it's bad for the country when matrimony ain't made to look like a
prize-package, no matter what it _reely_ is. What's goin' to become o'
the population, I should like to know? Here's Cora now, wantin' to be a
telefoam-girl when she grows up, an' there's no knowin' what Francie'll
choose. But you can take it from me, they'll both of 'em drop their
votes for the single life. They'll perfer to thump a machine o' their
own, with twelve or fifteen _per_, comin' to 'em, rather than be the
machine that's thumped, an' pay for the privilege out'n their own
pockets besides."

As fate would have it, the day went placidly by, in spite of Mr.
Slawson's somber prognostications. No one came to disturb the even tenor
of its way. Then, at eveningfall, while Martha was still absent, there
was a gentle rap upon the door, and Claire, anxious to anticipate Ma,
made haste to answer it, and saw a stranger standing on the threshold.
It was difficult, at first, to distinguish details in the dusk of the
dim hallway, but after a moment she made out the rotund figure of Mr.
Langbein. She could not see his face, but his voice was more than
conciliatory.

"Eggscoose me, lady!" he began apologetically. "I haf for Mis' Slawson a
liddle bresent here. I tink she like it. She look so goot-netchered, und
I know she iss kind to bum animals. My vife, her Maltee cat vas having