uple of
weeks, and out where you couldn't get ashore if you wanted to. Excuse
me!

Besides, I never did have the travel bug very hard. I'll admit I ain't
seen much of the country outside of New York; but say, what I have
looked over struck me as bein' kind of crude. I expect fields and
woods and the seaside stuff is all right for them that likes 'em. Make
good pictures, and all that. But them places always seem to me such
lonesome spots. Fine and dandy, so far as the view goes, but nobody to
it. I like my scenery sort of inhabited, and fixed so it can be lit up
at night. So I do most of my travelin' between the Bronx and the
Battery, and let it go at that.

Now Vee has been brought up different. She's chased round with Auntie
all over the map, ever since she can remember. They don't mind
startin' off with a maid and seven trunks and not seein' Fifth Avenue
for months at a time. She and Auntie think nothing at all of driftin'
into places like Nagasaki or Honolulu or Algiers, hirin' a furnished
flat or a house, and campin' down just as if they belonged there;
places where they speak all kinds of crazy languages, where ice-cream
sodas don't grow at all, and where you don't even know what you're
eatin' half the time. Think of that! But Auntie's an original old
girl, take it from me.

"She ain't countin' on draggin' you off on this batty gold-diggin'
excursion, is she?" I asks the other evenin', as I was up makin' my
reg'lar Wednesday night call.

Vee shrugs her shoulders.

"I'm sure I don't know," says she. "You see, although she knows
perfectly well I've heard all about it, Auntie makes a deep mystery of
everything connected with this cruise. It's that absurd Captain Killam
who puts her up to it, I believe."

"Romantic Rupert?" says I. "Oh, he's a soft-shell on that subject.
Accordin' to his idea, anybody who overhears any details of this pirate
treasure tale of his is liable to grab a dirt shovel and rush right off
down there to begin diggin' Florida up by the roots. He loses sleep
worryin' as to whether someone else won't get there first. It would be
tough if Auntie should take you along, though. I'd hate that."

"Would you?" says Vee. "Really? Well, I've been asked to visit at
three places--Greenwich, Piping Rock, and here in town. How would that
be?"

"Not so bad," says I, "specially that last proposition. I'm strong for
your visitin' here in town."

"Perhaps we shall hear to-night w