u wouldn't be so fat."

"S'pose I'd rather be fat than as lean as some fellers I know?"

"Then it would be all right to creep along the street same's we're doin'
now. Say, how far off is your shanty?"

"Down here a bit; but you don't count on goin' right there, do you?"

"Why not? Where else should we go?"

"Seems to me it would be better to get that stew first, an' then we
sha'n't have to come out again to-night."

"Look here, Plums," and Joe spoke sharply, "do you think I'm goin' to
take the princess into a place where they sell five-cent stews?"

"She's got to go somewhere, if she wants anything to eat."

"We'll bring her supper to your shanty. I won't carry this little thing
into a saloon for a crowd of toughs to look at."

Master Plummer sighed. He had been anticipating a feast of stew from the
moment Joe left him to engage in his new vocation, and it was a grievous
disappointment that the pleasure should be so long delayed.

"We'll go down to your place an' try an' fix things up; then you can
leave us there--"

"But you want somethin' to eat as well as I do."

"I guess I can get along without anything, for a spell. It's the
princess I'm thinkin' about; she's got to have somethin' fine, you know.
Stew'd never do for her."

"How's custard pie? I know where they've got some that's great,--two
inches thick, with the crust standin' up 'round the edge so the inside
won't fall out while you're eatin' it."

"Perhaps the princess might like the custard; but I ain't so sure about
the crust. It seems to me she's been fed mostly on candy, an' sich stuff
as that. Anyhow, you take my money an' buy whatever you think she'd
like. Got any candles down to your place?"

"I did have one last week; but the rats ate most of it, an' I don't
s'pose it would burn very well now."

"Take this nickel, an' buy some in that grocery store."

"Why don't you come, too?"

"I don't believe the princess would like to go into sich a place, an'
besides, folks might want to take hold of her. I ain't goin' to have any
Dutch groceryman slobberin' over her."

Master Plummer took the nickel and crossed the street in his ordinarily
slow fashion, while Joe and the princess held a long and animated
conversation, to the evident satisfaction of the little maid and the
mystification of the boy.

Owing to his being thus engaged, Joe did not grow impatient because of
Master Plummer's long absence, as he might have done under other
circumst