d
the look of one in love with life.

"Did you have a nice time playing solitaire?" asked Silvia.

"I had a very nice time," he replied with a subtle smile, "but I
didn't play solitaire. You know I had Diogenes."

"Diogenes apparently had a good time, too," said Silvia, looking at
the child, who was certainly a wreck in the way of garments. "What did
you do all day, Rob?"

"We went out on the water, played games, and had a picnic dinner
outdoors."

"You had huckleberry pie for one thing," she observed, with a glance
at Diogenes' dress, "and jelly for another, and--"

"Chicken, baked potatoes, milk, cake, and ice cream," he finished.

"Where did you get ice cream?" she asked.

"I went down to a dairy farm and got a gallon."

"A gallon!" she exclaimed. "For you and Diogenes?"

"We didn't eat it all," he said guardedly. "I gave what we didn't eat
to some stray boys."

"I hope Di won't be ill."

"He won't," asserted Rob. "I am sure he is made of cast iron."

Throughout dinner Rob remained in high spirits. He kept eyeing Beth in
a way that disconcerted her, and then suddenly he would smile with the
expression of one who knows something funny, but intends to keep it a
secret.

Presently Silvia left us and went upstairs to give Diogenes a bath
before she put him to bed.

"You've had two days' freedom from the last of the Polydores," I
called after her. "Doesn't it seem delightful?"

"Lucien," she answered slowly, "I've really missed the care of him. I
was lonesome for him all day."

"He isn't such a bad little kid when he is out from Polydore
environment," I admitted, regretting that he had been restored to it.

"Now tell us all about your day with the boys," Beth asked Rob, when
we were left alone. "It really does seem too bad to keep a secret from
Silvia, and yet it is a case of where ignorance is bliss--"

"It would be folly to be otherwise," finished Rob. "Well, Diogenes and
I left here with a boat load of supplies in the way of provender and
things for the boys. I had to tie Diogenes in the boat, of course, so
he would not try some aquatic feat. He objected and yelled like a
fiend all the way. I was glad there was no one at the hotel to come
out and arrest me for cruelty to children. Of course before we landed,
his cries were heard by his brothers and they were all at the water's
edge. They made mulepacks of themselves and transferred the commissary
supplies. The ice cream and bats and balls which