t the fire on the
table-cloth, and smoked a little while to settle his thoughts. "Here,
this plaster has got to be removed before the fatal day of her return,
or you will be holding down a job as a red-headed angel. Now, open your
shirt," and the old man reached in and got a corner of the plaster, and
gave a jerk that caused every hair on the boy's head to raise up and
crack like a whiplash, while the tintype of the girl, covered with
crude India rubber and medicated glue, dropped on the floor, and the boy
turned pale and yelled bloody murder. "Now, don't ever do that again.
A picture in your inside pocket is near enough to the heart for all
practical purposes. Next, you will be swallowing her picture in the hope
that it will lodge near your heart. Now I got something serious to talk
with you about. One of the park policemen was here this morning looking
for you. He said some of you boys just raised merry hades at the park
concert last night. What did you do?"

"Just flushed quails," said the boy, as he buttoned his shirt, and gave
the sore spot a parting dig. "We played we were hunting quail, and we
had more fun than you ever saw."

"There are no quail in the park," said Uncle Ike, as he looked curiously
at the boy through the smoke.

"Here, this plaster has got to be removed before the fatal day of her
return," and puffed until his cheeks sank in, and the tears came to his
eyes. "What is this quail fable, anyway?"

"You see," said the boy, as he took a piece of ice out of the water
pitcher and held it in his bosom, where the plaster came off, "when
there is an evening concert at the park, the boys and girls go off in
couples and sit under the trees in the dark, or on the grass, where no
one can see them very well, and they take hold of hands and put their
arms around each other, and all the time they are scared for fear they
will be caught, and ordered to quit. Well, us boys go around in the
dark, and when we see a couple in that way, one boy comes to a point,
like a dog, another boy walks up to the couple and flushes them, and as
they get up quick to go somewhere else, I blow up a paper bag and bust
it, and they start off on a run. Say, Uncle Ike, it is fun. We chased
one couple clear to the lake."

"You did, did you, you little imp?" said the old man, as his sympathies
were aroused for the young people who were disturbed at a critical time.
"Don't let me ever hear of your flushing any more couples, or I'll flus