her profile, and always with that puzzled look,
as if he hadn't yet come to believe that she was the newspaper Miss
Jennings.

After everything had been explained to him, including Mr. Jennings'
liver and disposition, she turned to him and said:

"We are in your hands, you see, Mr. Pierce. Are you going to help us?"
And when she asked him that, it was plain to me that he was only sorry
he couldn't die helping.

"If everybody agrees to it," he said, looking at her, "and you all think
it's feasible and I can carry it off, I'm perfectly willing to try."

"Oh, it's feasible," Mr. Dick said in a relieved voice, getting up and
beginning to strut up and down the room. "It isn't as though I'm beyond
call. You can come out here and consult me if you get stuck. And then
there's Minnie; she knows a good bit about the old place."

Mr. Sam looked at me and winked.

"Of course," said Mr. Dick, "I expect to retain control, you understand
that, I suppose, Pierce? You can come out every day for instructions. I
dare say sanatoriums are hardly your line."

Mr. Pierce was looking at Miss Patty and she knew it. When a woman looks
as unconscious as she did it isn't natural.

"Eh--oh, well no, hardly," he said, coming to himself; "I've tried
everything else, I believe. It can't be worse than carrying a bunch of
sweet peas from garden to garden."

Mr. Dick stopped walking and turned suddenly to stare at Mr. Pierce.

"Sweet--what?" he said.

Everybody else was talking, and I was the only one who saw him change
color.

"Sweet peas," said Mr. Pierce. "And that reminds me--I'd like to make
one condition, Mr. Carter. I feel in a measure responsible for the
company; most of them have gone back to New York, but the leading woman
is sick at the hotel in Finleyville. I'd like to bring her here for two
weeks to recuperate. I assure you, I have no interest in her, but I'm
sorry for her; she's had the mumps."

"Mumps!" everybody said together, and Mr. Sam looked at his
brother-in-law.

"Kid in the play got 'em, and they spread around," Mr. Pierce explained.
"Nasty disease."

"Why, you've just had them, too, Dicky!" said his wife. They all turned
to look at him, and I must say his expression was curious.

Luckily, I had the wit to knock over the breakfast basket, which was
still there, and when we'd gathered up the broken china, Mr. Dick had
got himself in hand.

"I'm sorry, old man," he said to Mr. Pierce, "but I'm not in favor of
b