fasten it more firmly in the soil, and it was impossible to judge
whether there was resentment in the tone. "He's coming back of his own
free will, and if he stays he'll put up with the house just as he finds
it. Nothing will be turned topsy-turvy, you may be sure. His room is
where it always was, and it ain't likely to be changed."

The conversation was disturbed by the appearance of the baby's father,
who emerged from the house and was on the way to the stable to feed and
water his horse. He wore a ready-made suit of clothes and a scarlet
necktie which clashed sharply with his blond hair and mustache. He was
almost as young as his wife, and he beamed proudly on the red human lump
in her arms as he paused for a moment. He smiled warmly on Mrs. Henley
when his wife playfully informed him that they would not have to move
till their week was up.

"Well, I certainly am glad to hear it," he declared. "I'd hate to look
for a new place just for a day or so, an' I've got so I feel sorter at
home here. Me an' yore father-in--(excuse me)--I mean, me 'n Mr. Wrinkle
have high old times. Even if I went to board somers else I'd come here
an' set of an evenin' to hear him talk. He drives off every spell of
blues I have. He is the beatenest man to get off jokes I ever knowed, to
be as old as he is. Just now he walked clean over to Pitman's to tell
that crusty old cuss that thar was a cow inside his lot fence, an' when
Pitman come down hoppin' mad with his shot-gun full o' pease yore
father-in--(excuse me)--Mr. Wrinkle p'inted to Pitman's own cow an'
said, 'I wasn't lyin' to you, Sam; thar she is.' He was laughin' just
now an' said he had a joke in store for Mr. Henley when he got here. I
tried to git it out of him, but he wouldn't say what was in the wind."

That evening, after supper, as the night was warm, the Allens, with the
child asleep on a pillow in a chair between them, were seated out under
the trees in front of the house, when Wrinkle slouched across the grass
to them. He was chewing tobacco, and frequently pressed two fingers over
his lips and between them spat with considerable accuracy at various
shrubs and tufts of grass about him. Even in the twilight they could see
that his small eyes were twinkling with suppressed amusement.

"I thought once, Allen," he chuckled, "that I wouldn't let you in on
this joke, but I'm afraid I won't sleep if I don't tell somebody. I
don't mind lettin' you two in on the quiet, but I wouldn