ised my secret, and now nothing
remains but the pleasure of telling you everything."

A thaw set in.

"As you have stated, not incorrectly, my dear, large bundles of
Green Fellows have severed their home ties and tiptoed into the
elsewhere," I continued, gradually getting my nerve back.

The thermometer continued to go up.

"Clara J., on several occasions you have expressed a desire to
leave this torn-up city and retire to the woodlands, haven't you?"
I asked.

She nodded and the weather grew warmer.

"Once you said to me, 'Oh, John, if they'd only take New York off
the operating table and give the poor city a chance to get well,
how nice it would be!'--didn't you?"

Another nod.

"Well," I said, backing Munchausen in a corner and dragging his
medals away from him, "that's the answer, You for the Burbs! You
for the chateau up the track! Henceforth, you for the cage in the
country where the daffydowndillys sing in the treetops and
buttercups chirp from bough to bough!"

"Oh, John!" she exclaimed, faint with delight; "do you really mean
you've bought a home in the country? How perfectly lovely! You,
dear, dear, old John! And that's what you've been doing with all
your money, just to surprise me! Bless your dear good heart! Oh!
I'm so glad, and so delighted. Won't it be simply grand?"

I could feel the cold, spectral form of Sapphira leaning over my
left shoulder, urging me on.

"What is it like? How many rooms? Where is it?" she inquired, all
in one breath.

Where was the blamed thing? What did it look like? How did I
know? She could search me. I could feel my ears getting red.
Presently I braced and mumbled, "No more details till the castle is
completed, then I'll coax you out there and let you revel."

"How soon will that be?" she asked, "To-morrow? Yes, John,
to-morrow?"

"No," I whispered croupily, "in--in about a week."

I wanted time to arrange my earthly affairs.

"Oh! lovely!" she said, and kissing me rushed away to break the
news to mother.

I felt like a rain check after the sun comes out.

Suddenly Hope tugged at my heart strings and I remembered that I
had a week in which to beat the ponies to a pulp and win out enough
coin to buy six Swiss Cheese cottages in the country.

Day after day I waded in among the jelly fish at the track but the
best I ever got was an $8 win.

Eight dollars wouldn't buy a dog house.

I was desperate. Every evening I had to sit around and l