rth a soup plate which she handed to him without comment.

In silence we watched him run across the lawn, twirling the plate
deftly above his head in juggler fashion.

The next day when we sat down to dinner our new young neighbor again
appeared on our threshold.

"Halloa!" he called chummily. "We are going to have soup again and we
want a soup plate for father."

"Where is the one I loaned you yesterday?" demanded Silvia in a tone
far below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit, while her features assumed a
frigidity that would have congealed father's favorite sustenance had
it been in her vicinity.

"Oh, we broke that!" he casually and cheerfully explained.

With much reluctance Silvia bestowed another plate upon the young
applicant.

"Wait!" I said as he started to leave, "don't you want the soup
tureen, too, or the ladle and some soup spoons?"

"No, thank you," he answered politely. "None of the rest of us like
soup, so we dish father's up in the kitchen. He doesn't like soup
particularly, but he eats it because it goes down quick and lets him
have more time for work."

This time as he sped homeward, he didn't spin the plate in air, but
tried out a new plan of balancing it on a stick.

"I think," I suggested gently, when our young neighbor was lost to our
sorrowful sight, "that it might be well to invest in another dozen or
so of soup plates. I will see about getting them at wholesale rates.
Our supply will soon give out if our new neighbors continue to
cultivate the soup and borrowing habit."

"I will buy some at the five cent store," replied Silvia. "I think I
had better call upon them tomorrow and see what manner of people they
can be."

When I came home the next day it was quite evident that she had
called.

"Well," I inquired, "what do they keep--a soup house?"

"They are literary people, the highest of high-brows. Their name is
Polydore, and the head of the house----"

"Mr. or Mrs.?" I interrupted.

"The head of the house," pursued Silvia, ignoring my question, "is a
collector."

"So I inferred. Has he a large collection of soup plates?"

"She collects antiquities and writes their history. He pursues
science."

"They were seemingly communicative. What did they look like?"

"I didn't see them. After I rang I heard a woman's voice bidding some
one not to answer the bell. She said she couldn't be bothered with
interruptions, so I went on up the street to call on Mrs. Fleming, who
told me all a