son-in-law. Mr. Schofield was
not so sure.

"No," said Mr. Kinosling. "No tobacco for me. No cigar, no pipe, no
cigarette, no cheroot. For me, a book--a volume of poems, perhaps.
Verses, rhymes, lines metrical and cadenced--those are my dissipation.
Tennyson by preference: 'Maud,' or 'Idylls of the King'--poetry of the
sound Victorian days; there is none later. Or Longfellow will rest me
in a tired hour. Yes; for me, a book, a volume in the hand, held lightly
between the fingers."

Mr. Kinosling looked pleasantly at his fingers as he spoke, waving his
hand in a curving gesture which brought it into the light of a window
faintly illumined from the interior of the house. Then he passed those
graceful fingers over his hair, and turned toward Penrod, who was
perched upon the railing in a dark corner.

"The evening is touched with a slight coolness," said Mr. Kinosling.
"Perhaps I may request the little gentleman----"

"B'gr-r-RUFF!" coughed Mr. Schofield. "You'd better change your mind
about a cigar."

"No, I thank you. I was about to request the lit----"

"DO try one," Margaret urged. "I'm sure papa's are nice ones. Do
try----"

"No, I thank you. I remarked a slight coolness in the air, and my hat is
in the hallway. I was about to request----"

"I'll get it for you," said Penrod suddenly.

"If you will be so good," said Mr. Kinosling. "It is a black bowler hat,
little gentleman, and placed upon a table in the hall."

"I know where it is." Penrod entered the door, and a feeling of relief,
mutually experienced, carried from one to another of his three relatives
their interchanged congratulations that he had recovered his sanity.

"'The day is done, and the darkness,'" began Mr. Kinosling--and recited
that poem entire. He followed it with "The Children's Hour," and after a
pause, at the close, to allow his listeners time for a little reflection
upon his rendition, he passed his handagain over his head, and called,
in the direction of the doorway:

"I believe I will take my hat now, little gentleman."

"Here it is," said Penrod, unexpectedly climbing over the porch railing,
in the other direction. His mother and father and Margaret had supposed
him to be standing in the hallway out of deference, and because he
thought it tactful not to interrupt the recitations. All of them
remembered, later, that this supposed thoughtfulness on his part struck
them as unnatural.

"Very good, little gentleman!" said Mr. Kinos