d seven to the day-schools for a cent apiece, and six to the manimal
trainer for a dime, and three to Taulbee for a big gingercake he brung
with him, and I give him a good taw for a couple more, and he traded the
two little wormy ones that was left to Keats for a purse."

"What purse?" I inquired.

"That 'ere one Keats swapped him all the apples for at first,--the one
you said weren't worth more'n one apple. Keats told him you said so, and
he said he would prove it were by giving Keats two-down for it, if he
wanted; and Keats was glad to make the trade."

"Do you mean to tell me," I asked, "that Geordie made seventeen cents, a
gingercake, a taw _and_ the purse, out of that trade, and Keats lost
everything but two wormy apples?"

Philip scratched his head thoughtfully. "By grab, he skinned the little
Salyer, didn't he? Gee, I wisht I was a born trader like him, dag gone
his ole soul!"

When Geordie returned to-night with Absalom, his jaw was tied up in a
red bandana, he wore a look of patient suffering, and explained that he
had had such a sorry time with toothache he could not return yesterday,
indignantly repudiating Philip's suggestion that he had just wanted to
stay and see a big time with the Yontses and drink their moonshine.
Later, when, while filling a hot-water bag for him, I regretfully spoke
to him on the subject of cheating in trades, he was deeply hurt, said he
had traded the apples back to Keats only to favor him, and confided in
me that he aimed to be a preacher when he growed up.

_Sunday Night._

During the ear-washing this morning, I had another round with Philip,
whose ears are always the grimiest, hair the most unkempt, clothes the
most tattered. "Philip," I said, with a groan, "you could be the
handsomest boy on the place if you only would!"

He replied contemptuously, "Handsome never earnt his salt; when a man
steps in the door, looks flies up the chimley!"

In the midst of our altercation, Absalom sauntered into my room, took
his stand before my mirror, and proceeded to give his hair a good
dressing with my brush and comb.

Later, as I saw Geordie walking to church with a Bible under his arm,
heard his heart-felt singing of the hymns, and watched his pious,
soap-shining face, I wondered I could ever have thought he meant to
cheat anybody.

The Trojan War made fine progress to-night,--it is only on Saturday and
Sunday nights that we can have stories, as other evenings must be spe