kes-Faces exchanged a significant
glance.

"You see," went on the Piper, "in the City everybody's in debt. Well, I
have to have my money, don't I? So I dunned 'em all good. But
maybe--er--a speck _too_ much. So--"

"Oh, dear!" breathed Gwendolyn

"Of course, I've never been what you might call popular. Who _would_
be--if everybody owed him money."

"Huh!" snorted the Policeman.

"You overcharge," asserted the little old gentleman.

Gwendolyn hastened to forestall any heated reply from the Piper. "You
don't think your pig had anything to do with it?" she suggested
considerately. "'Cause do--do _nice_ people like pigs?"

"The pig was never in sight," asserted the Piper. "Guess that's one
reason why I can't sell him. What people don't see they don't want to
buy--even when it's covered up stylish." (Here he regarded the poke
with an expression of entire satisfaction.)

The little company was well on its way by now--though Gwendolyn could
not recall the moment of starting. The Piper had not waited to be
invited, but strolled along with the others, his birch-stemmed
tobacco-pipe in a corner of his mouth, his hands in his pockets, and the
pig-poke a-swing at his elbow.

Thomas, left to get Jane along as best he could, had managed most
ingeniously. The nurse was cylindrical. All he had to do, therefore, was
to give her momentum over the smooth windings of the road by an
occasional smart shove with both hands.

Which made it clear that the likelihood of losing Jane, of leaving her
behind, was lessening with each moment! For now the more the nurse
laughed _the easier it would be to get her along_.

"Oh, dear!" sighed Gwendolyn, with a sad shake of her yellow head as
Jane came trundling up, both fat arms folded to keep them out of the
way.

"If she stopped dancin' where would I come in?" demanded the Piper,
resentfully. The pig moved in the poke. He trounced the poor thing
irritably.

The Man-Who-Makes-Faces now began to speak--in a curious, chanting
fashion. "The mode of locomotion adapted by this woman," said he,
"rather adds to, then detracts from, her value as a nurse. Think what
facilities she has for amusing a child!--on, say, an extensive slope of
lawn. And her ability to, see two ways--practically at once--gives her
further value. Would _she_ ever let a young charge fall over a cliff?"

The barrel was whopping over and over--noiselessly, except for the
faint chatter of Jane's tortoise-shell teeth. Behind