ground. I guess I'll let you
stay there for a while as a lesson to you. Watch him, Prince.' And off
he walks.

"'You everlasting clothes-pole,' I yells after him, 'if it wa'n't for
that dog of yours I'd--'

"He turns around kind of lazy and says he: 'Oh, you've got no kick
coming,' he says. 'I allow you to--er--ornament my tree, and 'tain't
every hayseed I'd let do that.'

"And away he goes; and for an hour that had no less'n sixty thousand
minutes in it I clung to that tree like a green apple, with Prince
setting open-mouthed underneath waiting for me to get ripe and drop.

"Just as I was figgering that I was growing fast to the limb, I heard
somebody calling my name. I unglued my eyes from the dog and looked up,
and there, looking over the fence that I'd tried so hard to reach, was
Barbara Saunders, Cap'n Eben Saunders' girl, who lived in the house next
door to mine.

"Barbara was always a pretty girl, and that morning she looked prettier
than ever, with her black hair blowing every which way and her black
eyes snapping full of laugh. Barbara Saunders in a white shirt-waist
and an old, mended skirt could give ten lengths in a beauty race to any
craft in silks and satins that ever _I_ see, and beat 'em hull down at
that.

"'Why, Mr. Nickerson!' she calls. 'What are you doing up in that tree?'

"That was kind of a puzzler to answer offhand, and I don't know what I'd
have said if friend Allie hadn't hove in sight just then and saved me
the trouble. He come strolling out of the woods with a cigarette in his
mouth, and when he saw Barbara he stopped short and looked and looked
at her. And for a minute she looked at him, and the red come up in her
cheeks like a sunrise.

"'Beg pardon, I'm sure,' says Allie, tossing away the cigarette. 'May I
ask if that--er--deep-sea gentleman in my tree is a friend of yours?'

"Barbara kind of laughed and dropped her eyes, and said why, yes, I was.

"'By Jove! he's luckier than I thought,' says Allie, never taking his
eyes from her face. 'And what do they call him, please, when they want
him to answer?' That's what he asked, though, mind you, he'd said he
knew who I was when he first saw me.

"'It's Mr. Nickerson,' says Barbara. 'He lives in that house there. The
one this side of ours.'

"'Oh, a neighbor! That's different. Awfully sorry, I'm sure. Prince,
come here. Er--Nickerson, for the lady's sake we'll call it off. You
may--er--vacate the perch.'

"I waited till he'd