reat stunt,--to get put in the papers."

"But we'll leave the megaphones," said Mitchell. "I won't go about with a
mouse and a megaphone. People might think I looked silly. People are so
queer."

"Put the mouse in the megaphone," suggested Burnett. "That's the way my
mother taught me to pack when I was a kid. You put your tooth brush in a
shoe, and the shoe in a sleeve and then turn the sleeve inside out. Oh, I
tell you--what is home without a mother?--Put the mouse in the megaphone and
stop up both ends. What are your hands and your mouth for?"

"Yes," said Mitchell, "I think I see myself so handling a megaphone that
the mouse doesn't run out either end or into my mouth. My mouth is a good
mouth and it's served me well and I won't turn it over to a mouse at this
late day."

"Let's keep the mice in their cages," said Clover, and as he spoke he
dropped his.

"Now see what you've done!" said the parrot.

"I didn't hurt it," said Clover. "Come on now."

"Yes, come on," said Burnett. "It's long after ten o'clock. You want to
remember that even roof gardens are not eternally on tap."

"Well, I'm trying to hurry all I can," said Mitchell. "I'm the picture of
patience scurrying for dear life only unable to lay hands on her gloves."

"I don't catch what's the trouble," said Aunt Mary to Jack.

[Illustration 5]

"The carriage stopped three hundred feet below the level of a
roof-garden."

"Nothing's the trouble," said Jack, "everything's fine and dandy. We're
going out now. Time of your life, Aunt Mary, time of your life!"

They telephoned for a carriage and all got in. Then Clover slammed the
door.

"Now see what you've done!" said the parrot.

"Is he going to keep saying that?" Burnett asked.

"I don't know," said Jack. "It comes in pretty pat, don't it?"

"Makes me think of my mother," said Clover. "I wish it wouldn't."

"I don't catch who's sayin' what," said Aunt Mary.

"Nobody's saying anything, Miss Watkins," roared Mitchell; "we are all
talking airy nothings just to pass the time o' day."

The carriage stopped three hundred feet below the level of a roof garden.

"We get out here," said Burnett.

They all got out and went up in an elevator.

"Seems to be a good many goin' to the same place," said Aunt Mary.

"Yes," said Mitchell, "a good many people generally go to places that are
great places for a good many people to go to."