atter asked, in surprise:

"Are you goin' to spend the whole of this?"

"It don't seem as though you'd have to, an' besides, we ought to leave a
little something for breakfast. Do the best you can, Plums."

With an air of responsibility, the proprietor of the establishment
walked slowly out, and Joe was left alone with his baby.

Swaying his body to and fro to delude her with the idea of being rocked,
Master Potter did his best to please the princess, and evidently
succeeded, for in a very short time after Plums had departed, the
sleep-elves soothed her eyelids with their poppy wands until she crossed
over into dreamland.

Now Joe would have laid the tiny maid on the straw to give relief to his
arms, but each time he attempted anything of the kind she moved
uneasily, as if on the point of awakening, and he was forced to abandon
the effort.

"I must be a chump if I can't hold a bit of a thing like her till she's
through sleepin'," he said to himself, "an' I ought'er be mighty glad to
have such a chance."

It was monotonous work, this playing the nurse while seated on the
ground with no support to his back; but never for a moment, not even
when his arms ached the hardest, did Joe Potter regret having taken upon
himself such a charge.

He had given little heed as to how the princess's parents might be
found, because he believed that would prove an exceedingly simple task.
He had only to go to the railroad station in the morning, and there
deliver the child to her mother, who, as a matter of course, would be in
waiting.

There was never a thought in his mind that, by bringing her to this home
of Master Plummer's, he had in fact secreted her from those who must at
that moment be making eager search.

He had done what seemed to him fitting under all the circumstances, and
felt well satisfied that no one could have cared for the child in a
better fashion, save in the matter of lodgings, which last left much to
be desired.

After a time, Joe succeeded in so far changing his position that it was
possible to gain the use of one hand, and immediately this had been
done, he set about carefully covering the princess's garments with a
newspaper, lest he himself should soil the fabrics.

Then there was nothing to do save wait the leisurely movements of Plums,
and it seemed as if fully an hour passed before that young gentleman
finally made his appearance.

"If I haven't got all you fellers can eat, then I'm mistaken,"