n-deep in the plush, with his eyes closed. I marked how
drawed and haggard he looked; and then, of a sudden he raised half on
to his feet. The girl had begun to sing. Her voice was rich and
low, and full of deep, still places, like a mountain stream. But
Morrow! He sunk his fingers into me, and leaned for'rad, starin' as
though Paradise had opened for him, while the sweat on his face shone
like diamond chips.

"It was the girl of the locket, all right, on the stage again--in
vaudeville.

"Her song bubbled along, rippling over sandy, sunlit gravel bars, and
slidin' out through shadowy trout pools beneath the cool, alder
thickets, and all the time my pardner sat burning his soul in his
eyes, his breath achin' out through his throat. Incidental, his
digits was knuckle-deep into the muscular tissue of William P., the
gent to the right.

"When she quit, I had to jam him back.

"For an encore she sang a reg'lar American song, with music to it.
When she reached the chorus she stopped. Then away up in the balcony
sounded the tiny treble of a boy's soprano, sweet as the ring of
silver. The audience turned, to a man, and we seen, perched among
the newsboys, the littlest, golden-haired youngster, 'bout the size
of your thumb, his eyes glued to the face of his mother on the stage
below, pourin' out his lark song, serious and frightened. Twice he
done it, while by main stren'th I held his father to the enjoyments
of a two-dollar orchestra chair.

"'Let us in,' we says, three minutes later, to the stranger at the
stage door, but he looked upon us with unwelcome, like the
seven-headed hydrant of Holy Writ.

"'It's agin' the rules,' says he. 'You kin wait in the alley with
the other Johnnies.'

"I ain't acclimated to the cold disfavour of a stage door, never
having soubretted along the bird and bottle route. I was for the
layin' on of hands. Moreover, I didn't like the company we was in,
'Johnnies,' by designations of the Irish terrier at the wicket. They
smoked ready-made cigarettes, and some of 'em must have measured full
eight inches acrost the chest.

"'Let us stroll gently but firmly into, over, and past the remains of
this party, to the missus,' says I, but Morrow got seized with the
shakes, of a sudden.

"'No, no. We'll wait here.'

"At last she come out, steppin' high. When she moved she rustled and
rattled like she wore sandpaper at the ankles.

"Say, she was royal! She carried the youngster in