aying:

"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!"

It was so distinct that he started and looked round. Then he laughed.
"I'll be seeing circus parades next!" His laughter fled, for, louder
than the ringing in his ears, unmistakably came the strains of a
far-away brass band which had no existence on land or sea or in the
waters under the earth.

"Here!" he said to the mongrel. "We need a walk, I think. Let's you
and me move on before the camels turn the corner!"

The music followed him to the street, where he turned westward toward
the river, and presently, as he walked on, fanning himself with his
straw hat, it faded and was gone. But the voice he had heard returned.

"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" it said again, close to
his ear.

This time he did not start. "All right," he answered, wiping his
forehead; "if you'll let me alone, I'll be there."

At a dingy saloon corner, near the river, a shabby little man greeted
him heartily and petted the mongrel. "I'm mighty glad you didn't go,
after all, Joe," he added, with a brightening face.

"Go where, Happy?"

Mr. Fear looked grave. "Don't you rec'lect meetin' me last night?"

Louden shook his head. "No. Did I?"

The other's jaw fell and his brow corrugated with self-reproach.
"Well, if that don't show what a thick-head I am! I thought ye was all
right er I'd gone on with ye. Nobody c'd 'a' walked straighter ner
talked straighter. Said ye was goin' to leave Canaan fer good and
didn't want nobody to know it. Said ye was goin' to take the
'leven-o'clock through train fer the West, and told me I couldn't come
to the deepo with ye. Said ye'd had enough o' Canaan, and of
everything! I follered ye part way to the deepo, but ye turned and
made a motion fer me to go back, and I done it, because ye seemed to be
kind of in trouble, and I thought ye'd ruther be by yerself. Well,
sir, it's one on me!"

"Not at all," said Joe. "I was all right."

"Was ye?" returned the other. "DO remember, do ye?"

"Almost," Joe smiled, faintly.

"ALMOST," echoed Happy, shaking his head seriously. "I tell ye, Joe, ef
I was YOU--" he began slowly, then paused and shook his head again. He
seemed on the point of delivering some advice, but evidently perceiving
the snobbishness of such a proceeding, or else convinced by his own
experience of the futility of it, he swerved to cheerfulness:

"I hear the boys is all goin' to work hard fer the primari