that I hold a mortgage on. You know the cottage I
built for Pete Carrol, this side of your mother's house? Well, he
couldn't pay for it and it is on my hands. He went West, you know, and
left all his furniture in it. I've had a rent-sign on it for two months,
but haven't had a single applicant for it. I'd like to take a peep at
it."

The cottage was in quite an isolated spot, near the end of the street
railway, in full view of the lots containing shanties in which negroes
and the very poorest whites lived. Above the tree-tops, not far away,
could be seen the patched roof of John's ramshackle home.

"I hid the key under the door-step," Cavanaugh said, as they entered the
small front gate, and, bending down, he secured it. Then he crossed the
tiny, newly painted front porch and unlocked and opened the door.

There was a little hallway with rooms on each side of it, a tiny parlor
on the right which, on entering, they found neatly equipped with plain
oak furniture, and a rug or two on the floor, which was covered with
straw matting. They next entered the dining-room, which was furnished in
similar style. There was a small sideboard holding a modest supply of
table-linen, dishes, and glassware.

"Pete's wife was awfully particular, and she left things in apple-pie
order," Cavanaugh said, as they went into the kitchen adjoining. This
room, too, was supplied with all necessary utensils, a neat stove and a
sink with running water. Next they saw the bedroom. It held a table
with a lamp on it, and an oak bedstead in neat order with unsoiled
pillows and white coverlet. There was a bureau with a wide plate-glass
mirror, also a wash-stand with a white ewer and basin. The floor was
covered with new matting.

"A snug little nest, eh?" Cavanaugh asked, with a slow and rather
automatic smile. "Looks like somebody ought to rent it, cheap as I hold
it and ready furnished--only fifteen a month."

"It is all right," John answered, indifferently. "You ought to rent it
in the fall, anyway, when business picks up."

"I want to rent it by the time we finish the court-house,
anyway"--Cavanaugh continued to smile--"and I'd like to rent it to
somebody that would take care of it-- I mean somebody that I know about.
Gee! wouldn't this be a snug little nest for a pair of new-married
turtle-doves? Think of a fellow coming back from his day's work at night
to a cottage like this, with a little wife to meet him in a white bib
and tucker and a ki