breakfast and then we'll go and find her."

He carried me through the open door of his office and set me down at his
desk. The cold air of the night had chilled me and I was shivering.

"You sit there and I'll have a fire going in a minute and get you warmed
up."

He wrapped me in his coat and went into the back room and built a fire
in a small stove and brought me in and set me down beside it. He made
some porridge in a kettle while I sat holding my little hands over the
stove to warm them, and a sense of comfort grew in me. Soon a boy came
bringing a small pail of fresh milk and a loaf of bread. I remember how
curiously the boy eyed me as he said to my new friend:

"Captain Moody wants to know if you'll come up to dinner?"

There was a note of dignity in the reply which was new to me, and for
that reason probably I have always remembered it.

"Please present my thanks to the Captain and tell him that I expect to
go up to Lickitysplit in the town of Ballybeen."

He dipped some porridge into bowls and put them on a small table. My
eyes had watched him with growing interest and I got to the table about
as soon as the porridge and mounted a chair and seized a spoon.

"One moment, Bart," said my host. "By jingo! We've forgotten to wash,
and your face looks like the dry bed of a river. Come here a minute."

He led me out of the back door, where there were a wash-stand and a pail
and a tin basin and a dish of soft soap. He dipped the pail in a rain
barrel and filled the basin, and I washed myself and waited not upon my
host, but made for the table and began to eat, being very hungry, after
hastily drying my face on a towel. In a minute he came and sat down to
his own porridge and bread and butter.

"Bart, don't dig so fast," said he. "You're down to hard pan now. Never
be in a hurry to see the bottom of the bowl."

I have never forgotten the look of amusement in his big, smiling, gray
eyes as they looked down upon me out of his full, ruddy, smooth-shaven
face. It inspired confidence and I whispered timidly:

"Could I have some more?"

"All you want," he answered, as he put another ladle full in my bowl.

When we had finished eating he set aside the dishes and I asked:

"Now could I go and see Sally Dunkelberg?"

"What in the world do you want of Sally Dunkelberg?" he asked.

"Oh, just to play with her," I said as I showed him how I could sit on
my hands and raise myself from the chair bottom.

"Haven't y