says Auntie, "I might use the same
expressions--if I knew how."

"Hip, hip, for Auntie!" I sings out. "And as for your not knowin' how,
that's easy fixed. 'Ikky-boy and I will give you lessons."

And say, after he'd finished his play and was about ready to be tucked
into his crib, what does the young jollier do but climb up in Auntie's
lap and cuddle down folksy, all on his own motion.

"Do you like your old Auntie, Richard?" she asks, smoothin' his red
curls gentle.

"Uh-huh," says 'Ikky-boy, blinkin' up at her mushy. "Oo's a swell
Auntie."

Are we back in the will again? I'll guess we are.

CHAPTER XI

LOUISE REVERSES THE CLOCK

It was one of Mr. Robert's cute little ideas, you might know. He's an
easy boss in a good many ways and I have still to run across a job that
I'd swap mine for, the pay envelopes being fifty-fifty. But say, when it
comes to usin' a private sec. free and careless he sure is an ace of
aces.

Maybe you don't remember, but I almost picked out his wife for him, and
when she'd set the date he turns over all the rest of the details to me,
even to providin' a minister and arrangin' his bridal tour. Honest I
expect when the time comes for him to step up and be measured for a set
of wings and a halo he'll look around for me to hold his place in the
line until his turn comes. And he won't be quite satisfied with the
arrangements unless I'm on hand.

So I ought to be prepared for 'most any old assignment to be hung on the
hook. I must say, though, that in the case of this domestic mix-up of
Mrs. Bruce Mackey's I was caught gawpin' on and unsuspectin'. In fact, I
was smotherin' a mild snicker at the situation, not dreamin' that I'd
ever get any nearer to it than you would to some fool movie plot you
might be watchin' worked out on the screen.

We happens to crash right into the middle of it, Vee and me, when we
drops in for our usual Sunday afternoon call on the Ellinses and finds
these week-end guests of theirs puttin' it up to Mr. and Mrs. Robert to
tell 'em what they ought to do. Course, this Mrs. Mackey is an old
friend of Mrs. Robert's and we'd seen 'em both out there before; in
fact, we'd met 'em when she was Mrs. Richard Harrington and Bruce was
just a sympathetic bachelor sort of danglin' around and makin' himself
useful. So it wasn't quite as if they'd sprung the thing on total
strangers.

And, anyway, it don't rate very rank as a scandal. Not as scandals run.
This No. 1