t--"

"Sto-o-op!"

"Unbiassed by prejudice," murmured Mr. Bessemer, "vigorous and to the
point. I'll have another roll."

"Pa, make Howard stop!"

"Howard!" exclaimed Travis; "what is it now?"

"Howard's squirting watermelon-seeds at me," whined Snooky, "and Pa
won't make him stop."

"Oh, I didn't so!" vociferated Howard. "I only held one between my
fingers, and it just kind of shot out."

"You'll come upstairs with me in just five minutes," announced Travis,
"and get ready for Sunday-school."

Howard knew that his older sister's decisions were as the laws of the
Persians, and found means to finish his breakfast within the specified
time, though not without protest. Once upstairs, however, the usual
Sunday morning drama of despatching him to Sunday-school in presentable
condition was enacted. At every moment his voice could be heard
uplifted in shrill expostulation and debate. No, his hands were clean
enough, and he didn't see why he had to wear that little old pink tie;
and, oh! his new shoes were too tight and hurt his sore toe; and he
wouldn't, he wouldn't--no, not if he were killed for it, change his
shirt. Not for a moment did Travis lose her temper with him. But
"very well," she declared at length, "the next time she saw that little
Miner girl she would tell her that he had said she was his beau-heart.
NOW would he hold still while she brushed his hair?"

At a few minutes before eleven Travis and her father went to church.
They were Episcopalians, and for time out of mind had rented a half-pew
in the church of their denomination on California Street, not far from
Chinatown. By noon the family reassembled at dinner-table, where Mr.
Bessemer ate his chicken-heart--after Travis had thrice reminded him of
it--and expressed himself as to the sermon and the minister's theology:
sometimes to his daughter and sometimes to himself.

After dinner Howard and Snooky foregathered in the nursery with their
beloved lead soldiers; Travis went to her room to write letters; and
Mr. Bessemer sat in the bay window of the dining-room reading the paper
from end to end.

At five Travis bestirred herself. It was Victorine's afternoon out.
Travis set the table, spreading a cover of blue denim edged with white
braid, which showed off the silver and the set of delft--her great and
never-ending joy--to great effect. Then she tied her apron about her,
and went into the kitchen to make the mayonnaise dressing for the
p