r. "His hair
was parted down the middle by a stroke of lightnin'. Or maybe you
combed it yourself."

"Don't you try to git comical with me!" she answered. "I didn't come
here for triflin'."

Her back being turned towards the end of the room wherein the redheaded
Keno was ensconced, that diffident individual furtively put forth his
hand and clutched up his boots and trousers from the floor. The latter
he managed to adjust as he wormed about in the berth. Then silently,
stealthily, trembling with excitement, he put out his feet, and
suddenly bolting for the door, with his boots in hand, let out a yell
and shot from the house like a demon, the pup at his heels, loudly
barking.

"Keno! Keno! come back here and stand your share!" bawled Jim,
lustily, but to no avail.

"Mercy in us!" Miss Doc exclaimed. "That man must be crazy."

Jim sank back in his bunk hopelessly.

"It's only his clothes makes him look foolish," he answered. "He's
saner than I am, plain as day."

"Then it's lucky I came," decided the visitor, vigorously sewing at the
trousers. "The looks of this house is enough to drive any man insane.
You're an ornary, shiftless pack of lazy-joints as ever I seen. Why
don't you git up and cook your breakfast?"

Perspiration oozed from the modest Jim afresh.

"I never eat breakfast in the presence of ladies," said he.

"Well, you needn't mind me. I'm jest a plain, sensible woman," replied
Miss Dennihan. "I don't want to see no feller-critter starve."

Jim writhed in the blankets. "I didn't s'pose you could stay all day,"
he ventured.

"I kin stay till I mend all your garmints and tidy up this here cabin,"
she announced, calmly. "So let your mind rest easy." She meant to see
that child if it took till evening to do so.

"Maybe I can go to sleep again and dream I'm dead," said Jim, in
growing despair.

"If you kin, and me around, you can beat brother John all to cream,"
she responded, smoothing out the mended overalls and laying them down
on a stool. "Now you kin give me your shirt."

Jim galvanically gathered the blankets in a tightened noose about his
neck.

"Hold on!" he said. "Hold on! This shirt is a bran'-new article, and
you'd spoil it if you come within twenty-five yards of it with a
needle."

"Where's your old one?" she demanded, atilt for something more to
repair. Her gaze searched the bunks swiftly, and Jim was sure she was
looking for the little man behind him. "Where's