s me now is how I can dig up
another pain."

"You might have your dear Violet see what can be done for that soft spot
in your head!" she snaps. "Only next time take her off out of sight,
please."

"Oh, we'll attend to that, all right," says I. "This havin' a green eyed
wife buttin' in just at the interestin' point is something fierce!" And
that's where I spread it on too thick.

"Don't be a chump, Shorty!" says Sadie, lettin' loose a sudden giggle and
mussin' my hair up with both hands. It's a way she has of gettin' out of
a corner, and she's skipped off before I'm sure whether she's still got a
grouch, or is only lettin' on.

By that time my appetite has come back; so I holds up the butler and has
him lay out a solitaire feed. And when I goes back to the crowd again I
finds Toodle has the center of the stage, with the spotlight full on him.
All the women are gathered round, listening to his guff like it was sound
sense. Seems he's organized a new deal on the thought cure stunt, and
he's workin' it for all it's worth. The men, though, don't appear so
excited over what he's sayin'.

"Confounded rubbish, I call it!" says Mr. Purdy-Pell.

"You ought to hear it from Violet," says I. "She's the star explainer of
that combination."

But Violet seems to have faded into the background. We don't see anything
more of her that evenin', nor she wa'n't in evidence next mornin'. Doc.
Toodle was, though. He begins by tellin' how he never takes anything but
hot water and milk on risin'; but that in the middle of the forenoon he
makes it a point to put away about three fresh laid eggs, raw, in a glass
of sherry.

"How interesting!" says Mrs. Purdy-Pell. "Then we must drive over to
Fernbrook Farm, right after breakfast, and get some of their lovely White
Leghorn eggs."

That was the sort of excursion I was rung into; so the bunch of us piles
into the wagonette and starts for a fresh supply of hen fruit. When we
gets to the farm the superintendent invites us to take a tour through the
incubator houses, and of course they all wants to see the dear little
chickies and so on. All but me. I stays and chins with the coachman while
he walks the horses around the driveway.

In about half an hour they comes troopin' back, Toodle in the lead,
luggin' a paper bag full of warm eggs. He don't wait for the others, but
pikes for the wagonette and climbs in one of the side seats facin' me. We
was just turnin' to back up to the block for the