ver 'most everything out there,
from the fat robins on the lawn to the new leaves on the trees.

And, believe me, when we gets back to town again, our studio apartment
seems cramped and stuffy. We talked over everything we'd seen and done
at the Ellinses'.

"That's really living, isn't it?" says Vee.

"Why not," says I, "with a twenty-room house, and grounds half as big as
Central Park?"

"I know," says Vee. "But a little place like Mr. Shinn's would be large
enough for us."

"I expect it would," says I. "You don't really think you'd like to live
out there, do you, though?"

"Wouldn't I!" says Vee, her eyes sparklin'. "I'd love it."

"What would you do all day alone?" I suggests.

"I'd raise ducks and chickens and flowers," says Vee. "And Leon could
have a garden. Just think!"

Yep--I thought. I must have kept awake hours that night, tryin' not to.
And the more I mulled it over---- Well, in the mornin' I had a talk with
Mr. Robert, after which I got busy with the long-distance 'phone. I
didn't say anything much at lunch about what I'd done, but around three
o'clock I calls up the apartment.

"I'm luggin' home someone to dinner," says I. "Guess who?"

Vee couldn't.

"MacGregor the grouch," says I.

"Really!" says Vee. "How funny!"

"It's part of the plot," says I. "Tell the Professor to spread himself
on the eatings, and have the rooms all fixed up slick."

Vee says she will. And she does. MacGregor falls for it, too. You should
have seen him after dinner, leanin' back comfortable in our biggest
chair, sippin' his coffee, and puffin' one of Old Hickory's special
perfectos that I'd begged for the occasion.

And still I didn't let on. What I'm after is to have him spring the
proposition on me. Just before he's ready to go, too, he does.

"I say," says he casual, "this isn't such a bad hole you have here."

"Perfectly rotten," says I.

"Then we might make a trade," says he. "What?"

"There's no tellin'," says I. "You mean a swap, as things stand?"

"That's it," says he. "I'm no hand for moving rubbish about."

"Me either," says I. "But if you mean business, suppose you drop in
to-morrow at the office, about ten-thirty, and talk it over."

"Very well," says MacGregor. "I'll stop in town to-night."

"Oh, Torchy!" says Vee, after he's gone. "Do--do you suppose he
will--really?"

"You're still for it, eh?" says I. "Sure, now?"

"Oh, it would be almost too good to be true," says she. "That could