little gal from its lovin' mother, and more 'an that, to
take it from a school where it's gettin' all the benefits of
eddication.'--'Eddication,' says he; 'that's all stuff. What eddication
the gal gets at a school like that isn't worth a row of pins, and when
they go away they don't know nothin' useful, nor even anything tip-top
ornamental. All they've learned is the pianer and higher mathematics. As
for anythin' useful, they're nowhere. There isn't one of them could
bound New Jersey or tell you when Washington crossed the
Delaware.'--'That may be, sir,' says I, 'but them higher branches comes
useful. If Washington really did cross the Delaware, your little gal
could ask somebody when it was, but she couldn't ask 'em how the pianer
was played, nor what the whole multiplication table came to added up.
Them things she'd have to learn how to do for herself. I give you my
word, sir, I couldn't take a little gal from a school, where she was
gettin' a number one eddication, silver forks and towels extry.' The
gent looked pretty glum, for he was to sail the next day, and if I
didn't do the job for him he didn't know who would, and he said that he
was sorry to see that I was goin' back on him after the recommend I'd
had, and I said that I wouldn't go back on him if it wasn't for my
conscience. I was ready to do any common piece of business, but this
stealin' away little gals from lovin' mothers was a leetle too much for
me. 'Well,' says he, 'there ain't no time to be lost, and how much more
will satisfy your conscience?' When I said a hundred dollars, we struck
the bargain.

"Well, we cut and dried that business pretty straight. I took a cab and
went out to the school, and the gent he got the key of a house that was
to let about three miles from the school, and he was to stay there and
look at that empty house until I brought him the gal, when he was to pay
me and take her away. I'd like to have had more time, so that I could go
out and see how the land laid, but there wasn't no more time, and I had
to do the best I could. The gent told me they all went a walkin' every
afternoon, and that if I laid low that would be the best time to get
her, and I must just fetch her along, no matter who hollered.

"I didn't know exactly how I was going to manage it, but I took along
with me a big bag that was made for the conveyance of an extinct
millionaire, but which had never been used, owin' to beforehand
arrangements which had been mad