seated themselves. The woman was
engrossed with the bill of fare, but the child's attention seemed
riveted upon the Sausage Chappie. He was drinking him in with wide eyes.
He seemed to be brooding on him.

Archie, too, was brooding on the Sausage Chappie, The latter made an
excellent waiter: he was brisk and attentive, and did the work as if
he liked it; but Archie was not satisfied. Something seemed to tell him
that the man was fitted for higher things. Archie was a grateful soul.
That sausage, coming at the end of a five-hour hike, had made a
deep impression on his plastic nature. Reason told him that only an
exceptional man could have parted with half a sausage at such a moment;
and he could not feel that a job as waiter at a New York hotel was an
adequate job for an exceptional man. Of course, the root of the trouble
lay in the fact that the fellow could not remember what his real
life-work had been before the war. It was exasperating to reflect, as
the other moved away to take his order to the kitchen, that there, for
all one knew, went the dickens of a lawyer or doctor or architect or
what not.

His meditations were broken by the voice of the child.

"Mummie," asked the child interestedly, following the Sausage Chappie
with his eyes as the latter disappeared towards the kitchen, "why has
that man got such a funny face?"

"Hush, darling."

"Yes, but why HAS he?"

"I don't know, darling."

The child's faith in the maternal omniscience seemed to have received a
shock. He had the air of a seeker after truth who has been baffled. His
eyes roamed the room discontentedly.

"He's got a funnier face than that man there," he said, pointing to
Archie.

"Hush, darling!"

"But he has. Much funnier."

In a way it was a sort of compliment, but Archie felt embarrassed. He
withdrew coyly into the cushioned recess. Presently the Sausage Chappie
returned, attended to the needs of the woman and the child, and came
over to Archie. His homely face was beaming.

"Say, I had a big night last night," he said, leaning on the table.

"Yes?" said Archie. "Party or something?"

"No, I mean I suddenly began to remember things. Something seems to have
happened to the works."

Archie sat up excitedly. This was great news.

"No, really? My dear old lad, this is absolutely topping. This is
priceless."

"Yessir! First thing I remembered was that I was born at Springfield,
Ohio. It was like a mist starting to life. Springfie