s gentleman proceeded to unwind an apparently endless welcome.

"I like him," Clyde whispered.

"Pure gold," said Casey, and created a diversion. He helped Quilty
deposit the bags in the station.

"Thon's a fine gyurrl," said the latter, with a jerk of his thumb
toward the platform."

"Right," Casey replied.

"Oh, trust a quiet devil like yourself to pick wan out," said the
little station agent. "I was the same meself, whin I was more younger
nor what I am now. I fell dead in love with a fine, big gyurrl be th'
name iv--iv--dom'd if I don't forget the name iv her, onless it was
Mary or Josephine--no, thim came afther. What th' divil are ye laughin'
at? Annyways, me an' this gyurrl that I loved that I forget the name
iv, was strollin' wan night be moonlight, d'ye see me, now? And we come
to where there was a stump risin' maybe two fut clear iv th'
ground--ye'll wonder what th' stump had to do wid ut, but listen--and I
stopped and put me arrm around her waist--or tried to; for a fine
circumferenshus waist she had. Faix, a wan-arrmed man'd've been up
against it intirely wid her--and I sez to her, 'Lena'--that was her
name, Lena, I remimber now, and she was a Swede--'Lena,' I sez, 'luk at
the moon!' 'Ay see him,' she sez. 'Turn yer sweet face a little more to
the southeast,' I sez, that bein' to'rd the stump I mintioned before;
an' when I had her at the right angle I made a lep up on the stump and
kissed her. Faix, and the same was a forced play, me bein' the height I
am, and her over six fut. 'I love yez,' I sez; 'say yez love me!'"

"Well, what did she say?" asked Casey, as Mr. Quilty paused for breath.

"She concealed her feelin's," Mr. Quilty replied sadly. "She said, 'Ay
tenk ve go home now. Ay don't vant no feller vat have to mek love med a
step-ladder!' And afther that, mind ye, what does she do but take up
wid another little divil wid no legs at all, havin' lost them under a
shuntin' ingin. But his artfulness is such that he gets extra-long
imitation wans, like stilts, to do his coortin' on. An', though he
looks like a cross bechune a sparrow and a crane and has to carry an
oil can when he walks or else creak like a stable door in Janooary, she
marries him and keeps him in luxury be takin' in washin' for the camps.
And so, ye see, though I had stood on wan stump to kiss her, ivery time
he done the likes he had to stand on _two_!"

"Corney," said Casey gravely, "you are an awful liar."

"I will not be insul