he merchant in the treble voice which I remembered
so well. "This is Bart and Peabody! How are you?"

"Pretty well," I answered, my uncle being too slow of speech to suit my
sense of propriety. "How is Sally?"

The two men laughed heartily much to my embarrassment.

"He's getting right down to business," said my uncle.

"That's right," said Mr. Dunkelberg. "Why, Bart, she's spry as a cricket
and pretty as a picture. Come up to dinner with me and see for
yourself."

Uncle Peabody hesitated, whereupon I gave him a furtive nod and he said
"All right," and then I had a delicious feeling of excitement. I had
hard work to control my impatience while they talked. I walked on some
butter tubs in the back room and spun around on a whirling stool that
stood in front of a high desk and succeeded in the difficult feat of
tipping over a bottle of ink without getting any on myself. I covered
the multitude of my sins on the desk with a newspaper and sat down
quietly in a chair.

By and by I asked, "Are you 'most ready to go?"

"Yes--come on--it's after twelve o'clock," said Mr. Dunkelberg. "Sally
will be back from school now."

My conscience got the better of me and I confessed about the ink bottle
and was forgiven.

So we walked to the big house of the Dunkelbergs and I could hear my
heart beating when we turned in at the gate--the golden gate of my youth
it must have been, for after I had passed it I thought no more as a
child. That rude push which Mr. Grimshaw gave me had hurried the
passing.

I was a little surprised at my own dignity when Sally opened the door to
welcome us. My uncle told Aunt Deel that I acted and spoke like Silas
Wright, "so nice and proper." Sally was different, too--less playful and
more beautiful with long yellow curls covering her shoulders.

"How nice you look!" she said as she took my arm and led me into her
playroom.

"These are my new clothes," I boasted. "They are very expensive and I
have to be careful of them."

I remember not much that we said or did but I could never forget how she
played for me on a great shiny piano--I had never seen one before--and
made me feel very humble with music more to my liking than any I have
heard since--crude and simple as it was--while her pretty fingers ran up
and down the keyboard.

O magic ear of youth! I wonder how it would sound to me now--the
rollicking lilt of _Barney Leave the Girls Alone_--even if a sweet maid
flung its banter at me with fl