y, and my daughter is abroad. Have I been
dreaming?"

The Meanest Trustee unlocked the drawer of his desk and took out a
cigar. He did not intend that his sons or his servants should smoke at
his expense; furthermore, it was well not to spread temptation before
others. He took up the evening paper and examined the creases
carefully. He wished to make sure it had not been unfolded before;
being the one to pay for the news in his house, he preferred to be the
first one to read it. The creases proved perfectly satisfactory; so he
lighted his cigar, crossed his feet, and settled himself--content in
his own comfort. The smoke spun into spirals about his head; and after
he had skimmed the cream of the day's events he read more leisurely,
stopping to watch the spirals with a certain lazy enjoyment. They
seemed to grow increasingly larger. They spun themselves about into
all kinds of shapes, wavering and illusive, that defied the somewhat
atrophied imagination of the Meanest Trustee.

"Hallucinations," he barked to himself. "I believe I understand now
what is implied when people are said to have them."

Suddenly the spirals commenced to lengthen downward instead of upward.
To the amazement of the Meanest Trustee he discovered them shifting
into human shapes: here was the form of a child, here a youth, here a
lover and his lass, here a little old dame, and scores more; while into
the corners of the room drifted others that turned into the drollest of
droll pipers--with kilt and brata and cap. It made him feel as if he
had been dropped into the center of a giant kaleidoscope, with
thousands of pieces of gray smoke turning, at the twist of a hand, into
form and color, motion and music. The pipers piped; the figures
danced, whirling and whirling about him, and their laughter could be
heard above the pipers' music.

"Stop!" barked the Meanest Trustee at last; but they only danced the
faster. "Stop!" And he shook his fist at the pipers, who played
louder and merrier. "Stop!" And he pounded the arms of his chair with
both hands. "I hate music! I hate children! I hate noise and
confusion! Stop! I say."

Still the pipers played and the figures danced on; and the Meanest
Trustee was compelled to hear and see. To him it seemed an
interminable time. He would have stopped his ears with his fingers and
shut his eyes, only, strangely enough, he could not. But at last it
all came to an end--the figures floated laugh