e if me estate's growed any
durin' the week.

Well, the last time I does it, I drops off about two stations too soon,
thinkin' a little outdoor leg-work would do me good.

It was a grand scheme, and I'd been all right if I'd followed the
trolley track along the post-road; but the gasolene carts was so thick,
and I got to breathin' so much gravel, that I switches off. I takes a
nice-lookin' lane that appears like it might bring me out somewhere near
the place I was headin' for; but as I ain't much on findin' my way where
they don't have sign-boards at the corners, the first thing I knows I've
made so many turns I don't know whether I'm goin' out or comin' back.

It was while I was doin' the stray act, and wonderin' if it was goin' to
shower, or was only just bluffin', that I bumps into this Incubator
bunch, and the performance begins.

First squint I took I thought somebody'd been settin' out a new kind of
shrubbery, and then I sized it up for a lot of umbrella jars that had
been dumped there. But pretty soon I sees that it's nothin' but a double
row of kids, all dressed the same. There must have been more'n a hundred
of 'em, and they was standin' quiet by the side of the road, just as
much to home as if that was where they belonged. Now, it ain't the
reg'lar thing to find any such aggregation as that on a back lane, and
if I'd had as much sense as a family horse in a carryall I'd shied and
rambled the other way. But I has to get curious to see what it's all
about, so I blazes ahead, figurin' on takin' a good look as I goes by.

At the head of the procession was a lady and gent holdin' some kind of
exercises, and as I comes up I notices something familiar about the
lady's back hair. She turns around just then, gives a little squeal, and
makes for me with both hands out. Sure, it was her--Sadie Sullivan, that
was. Well, I knew that Sadie was liable to be floatin' around anywhere
in Westchester County, for that seems to be her regular stampin' ground
since she got to travelin' with the country house set; but I wasn't
lookin' to run across her just then and in that company.

"Oh, Shorty!" says she, "you're a life-saver! I've half a mind to hug
you right here."

"If it wa'n't for givin' an exhibition," says I, "I'd lend you the
other half. But how does the life-savin' come in? And where'd you
collect so many kids all of a size? Is that pop, there?" and I jerks me
thumb at the gent.

"Captain Kenwoodie," says Sadie,