telling stories to
the twins. Perhaps I should say telling _a_ story, for Billy's range was
limited to a single tale, and when he had told this, if any child wanted
more, he simply had to tell it over again. It was a story with a moral,
and was drawn from Billy's own experience. It was about a bad little
boy, who ate up all his sister's pep'mint drops. This was the worst of
crimes, in Billy's eyes, for to him pep'mint drops were a sacred
possession, not even to be lightly referred to.

"His marmer," went on Billy, impressively, "kep' a-whippin' him, an'
a-whippin' him, but it warn't no kind o' use, an' didn't do a mite o'
good. And just think, children," finished Billy, solemnly, "when that
bad, naughty, selfish little boy died, he couldn't go to Heaven and be a
good little angel, but he had to go to the Bad Place."

The children listened with wide-open eyes.

"Where is the Bad Place, Billy?" questioned Zaidee, looking
interestedly up into Billy's face.

Billy looked slowly all about him, and above him, and then at the
ground, puzzled, now, what to say. He was not very clear, himself. He
looked again at the blue sky, flecked with soft, white clouds.

"Wal, I think, children," he said, in his slow way, "that Heaven is up
there where all them little bright specks is at night. I guess them's
holes in the floor. Can't see 'em daytimes, you know, when the lights
are out, up above. 'N' I ruther guess t'other place is down under
there, pointing to the ground."

Helen jumped.

"Oh, I don't want it right under our foots. The ground might crack,
Billy, and we'd fall in. _Please_ don't say it's there," she begged,
earnestly.

But Zaidee immediately began to poke the ground with great interest, and
stamp hard upon it.

"Do you really think it's down there, Billy?" she asked, excitedly. "Oh,
Helen, let's dig and find it! How far down is it, Billy?"

"Wal, now, I dunno as it's down there at all. Dunno as it is, dunno
_as_ it is. Folks say it's purty hot there."

"I know a nice place to dig, Helen, and that's the sand-banks. They're
so nice and soft. Let's go and try it."

But Helen hung back, and Billy said, anxiously, "I wouldn't. Folks say
that Somebody lives there."

"Who?" demanded Zaidee.

"Wal, folks says as Mr. Satan lives round them parts," answered Billy,
cautiously.

"Oh, don't let's dig, Zaidee, I'm afraid," said timid little Helen,
clinging to Zaidee's hand. "He might not like it, if we finded him."