no ollee China boy."

"That's so," said the Editor with an air of conviction. "I don't suppose
there's another imp like you in all Trinidad County. Well, next time
don't scratch outside there like a gopher, but come in."

"Lass time," suggested Li Tee blandly, "me tap tappee. You no like tap
tappee. You say, alle same dam woodpeckel."

It was quite true--the highly sylvan surroundings of the Trinidad
"Sentinel" office--a little clearing in a pine forest--and its attendant
fauna, made these signals confusing. An accurate imitation of a
woodpecker was also one of Li Tee's accomplishments.

The Editor without replying finished the note he was writing; at which
Li Tee, as if struck by some coincident recollection, lifted up his long
sleeve, which served him as a pocket, and carelessly shook out a letter
on the table like a conjuring trick. The Editor, with a reproachful
glance at him, opened it. It was only the ordinary request of an
agricultural subscriber--one Johnson--that the Editor would "notice" a
giant radish grown by the subscriber and sent by the bearer.

"Where's the radish, Li Tee?" said the Editor suspiciously.

"No hab got. Ask Mellikan boy."

"What?"

Here Li Tee condescended to explain that on passing the schoolhouse he
had been set upon by the schoolboys, and that in the struggle the big
radish--being, like most such monstrosities of the quick Californian
soil, merely a mass of organized water--was "mashed" over the head of
some of his assailants. The Editor, painfully aware of these regular
persecutions of his errand boy, and perhaps realizing that a radish
which could not be used as a bludgeon was not of a sustaining nature,
forebore any reproof. "But I cannot notice what I haven't seen, Li Tee,"
he said good-humoredly.

"S'pose you lie--allee same as Johnson," suggested Li with equal
cheerfulness. "He foolee you with lotten stuff--you foolee Mellikan man,
allee same."

The Editor preserved a dignified silence until he had addressed his
letter. "Take this to Mrs. Martin," he said, handing it to the boy; "and
mind you keep clear of the schoolhouse. Don't go by the Flat either if
the men are at work, and don't, if you value your skin, pass Flanigan's
shanty, where you set off those firecrackers and nearly burnt him out
the other day. Look out for Barker's dog at the crossing, and keep
off the main road if the tunnel men are coming over the hill." Then
remembering that he had virtually closed all