nd legs and sprang from his
chair.

"Really, fellows, I don't know anything about it. All I do is to let
myself go. I always _feel_ more than I _see_, and so my brush has a
devil of a job to keep up. Marie! _Marie!_"

Had the good woman been a mile down the brook she could have heard
him--she was only in the next room. "Bring in the boots--two pairs this
time--we're going fishing. And, Marie--has the chauffeur had anything to
eat?"

"Yes, monsieur."

"Anything to drink?"

"No, monsieur."

"_What!_ Hand him this," and he grabbed a half-empty bottle from the
table.

I sprang forward and caught it before Marie got her fingers around it.

"Not if I know it!" I cried. "We've got to get back to Dives. When he
lands me inside my garden at the inn he shall have a magnum, but not a
drop till he does."

*****

When the two had gone the Sculptor and I leaned back in our chairs and
lighted fresh cigars. My enthusiasm has not cooled for the sports of
my youth. With a comfortable stool, a well-filled basket, and a long
jointed rod, I, like many another staid old painter, can still get
an amazing amount of enjoyment watching a floating cork, but I
didn't propose to follow those two lunatics. I knew the Man from the
Quarter--had known him from the day of his birth--and knew what he would
do and where he would go (over his head sometimes) for a poor devil of a
fish half as long as his finger, and I had had positive evidence of
what the other web-footed duck thought of ice-cold water. No, I'd take a
little sugar in mine, if you please, and put a drop of--but the Sculptor
had already foreseen and was then forestalling my needs, so we leaned
back in our chairs once more.

Again the talk covered wide reaches.

"Great boy, Knight," broke out the Sculptor in a sudden burst of
enthusiasm over his friend. "You ought to see him handle a crowd when
he's at work. He knows the French people--never gets mad. He bought a
calf for Marie last week, and drove it home himself. Told me it had ten
legs, four heads, and twenty tails before he got it here. Old woman lost
hers and Knight bought her another--he'd bring her a herd if she wanted
it. All the way from the market the boys kept up a running fire of
criticism. When the ringleader came too near, Knight sprang at him with
a yelp like a dog's. The boy was so taken aback that he ran. Then
Knight roared with laughter, and in an instant the whole crowd were his
friends--two of them helped