hose among the heap, sorted out the sizes, called
this lot the Merry Wives, that lot the Crazy Things, christened them after
an insect or a flower, packed them up in lots of ten or twelve girls, with
snub-noses or Greek profiles, as preferred, despatched them,
carriage-paid, C. O. D., with words, music and muslin skirts complete, and
received every day a detailed account of his Honeysuckles and Bees,
scattered all over the world, from the Klondike to Calcutta.

This superlative organization produced upon Pa the effect of a state
affair; it was something beyond him, above him; it interested him
especially from the recruiting point of view; and what stimulated him
above all was the troupes of trick cyclists. He had seen plenty of them in
America, but then, wholly occupied as he was with his Lily, they did not
interest him, whereas now he was seeking to fathom their lives, so that he
might know. Some of them, who went cheap, slept three in a bed, niggers
and whites all mixed; others, who were well paid, lived easily and
comfortably and put themselves forward with less work and for more money
than Lily, Lily who possessed artistic talent, and who had toiled harder
than all the rest of them put together! Patience, his turn would come ...
when she was a bit less thin. And he would have the troupe of troupes,
he'd show them, jolly soon!

Mrs. Clifton was terrified at her husband's boldness, but dared not
protest; however, she observed that it was a big undertaking.

"We shall have five apprentices," interrupted Clifton, "six including
Lily. We must find lodgings."

"But, dear...!"

"Don't you think...?"

"Yes, dear."

As for the apprentices, he would see to that to-morrow. Ma suggested that
her sister-in-law's daughter might do, but Pa wouldn't have relatives at
any price--blubbering for a smacking bestowed upon their daughters--he
knew all about them, thank you. Let such sheep bleat elsewhere. No, give
him strangers. He could be freer with them and get as many as he wished.
An advertisement in _The Daily Mail_--"Wanted, young girls for trick
cycling," followed by the address--fetched them the same day. The pavement
before the house was blocked with white aprons, sailor-hats and
tam-o'-shanters. There were consumptive-looking girls, long hanks of
girls, chunky girls, all crowding outside the door, until the landlady
drove them away with her broom and threatened to do as much for Pa and Ma
if all the street-arabs of Lon