eople would laugh at and call the 'gold-brick' house! You've got
to get a lot better, Paul. Try once more and call 'em the 'Daffodil' or
the 'Crocus'--something that sounds springlike and cheerful. And play up
local pride--a Hoosier product for Hoosier people. Then when you've done
that, fly to Chicago and give away enough to build a house in one of the
new suburbs and daffodils will spring up all over the prairie. Am I
lucid?"

"There may be something in giving an old dog a new name. I've a good
notion to give it a try, and if--"

"Oh, there's no charge! You might send me up a couple of those brick; I
can use 'em for nut-crackers."

Judge Walters once said of Phil that if she would keep a diary and write
down honestly everything that happened to her if would some day put
Pepys to the blush. Not every day was as rich in adventure as this; but
this is not a bad sample. If Phil had been a prig or fresh or
impertinent, she would not have been the idol of Main Street. A genius
for being on the spot when events are forward must be born in one, and
her casual, indifferent air contributed to a belief in Main Street that
she was leagued with supernatural agencies. If there was a fire, Phil
arrived ahead of the department; and if a prisoner broke out of jail,
Phil knew it before the "Evening Star" could print the fact.

"Some one told me," Captain Wilson would begin, addressing Judge
Walters; and the judge would answer, "Otherwise Phyllis." And the judge
would say, "I'm going to quit taking the 'Star' and subscribe for Phil."

Phil had, on the whole, a pretty good time.

CHAPTER VI

THE SMOKING-OUT OF AMZI

Although a Holton had brought scandal upon the house of Montgomery by
eloping with one of its duly married daughters, or perhaps because of
that disagreeable circumstance, Mrs. Hastings, Mrs. Fosdick, and Mrs.
Waterman were constantly exercised over the affairs of the Holtons. The
Holtons prospered, as witness the fashion in which William (the wicked
Jack's brother) had built up the First National Bank after the
dissolution of the old Montgomery & Holton partnership. And there was
Samuel, who had varied his political activities by organizing companies
to raise vanilla beans or sarsaparilla, or to dig silver in Mexico--a
man of affairs, unquestionably, who had outgrown Montgomery and moved to
the state capital where he died. Even Samuel's paltry achievements were
touched with a certain magnificence in the eyes