nded as much
to impress Mary and Humpy as the guests.

"Of course," said Mr. Wilton, whose appearance was the least bit comical
by reason of his bandaged head,--"of course it was very foolish for a man
of your sterling character to allow a young woman like my daughter to
bully you into robbing houses for her. Why, when Roger fired at you as you
were jumping out of the window, he didn't miss you more than a foot! It
would have been ghastly for all of us if he had killed you!"

"Well, o' course it all begun from my goin' into th' little house lookin'
fer Shaver's folks," replied The Hopper.

"But you haven't told us how you came to find our house," said Roger,
suggesting a perfectly natural line of inquiries that caused Humpy to
become deeply preoccupied with a pump he was operating in a basin of water
for Billie's benefit.

"Well, ut jes' looked like a house that Shaver would belong to, cute an'
comfortable like," said The Hopper; "I jes' suspicioned it wuz th' place
as I wuz passin' along."

"I don't think we'd better begin trying to establish alibis," remarked
Muriel, very gently, "for we might get into terrible scrapes. Why, if Mr.
Stevens hadn't been so splendid about _everything_ and wasn't just the
kindest man in the world, he could make it very ugly for me."

"I shudder to think of what he might do to me," said Wilton, glancing
guardedly at his neighbor.

"The main thing," said Talbot,--"the main thing is that Mr. Stevens has
done for us all what nobody else could ever have done. He's made us see
how foolish it is to quarrel about mere baubles. He's settled all our
troubles for us, and for my part I'll say his solution is entirely
satisfactory."

"Quite right," ejaculated Wilton. "If I ever have any delicate business
negotiations that are beyond my powers I'm going to engage Mr. Stevens to
handle them."

"My business's hens an' eggs," said The Hopper modestly; "an' we're doin'
purty well."

When they rose to go (a move that evoked strident protests from Billie,
who was enjoying himself hugely with Humpy) they were all in the jolliest
humor.

"We must be neighborly," said Muriel, shaking hands with Mary, who was at
the point of tears so great was her emotion at the success of The Hopper's
party. "And we're going to buy all our chickens and eggs from you. We
never have any luck raising our own."

Whereupon The Hopper imperturbably pressed upon each of the visitors a
neat card stating his name (his la