ears than is usual, their sleeves more amply over their hands, their boots higher above their ankles, and their trousers further below their knees. Beyond this, their dress was not remarkable, save for the manner in which their coats were buttoned-the first button in the second hole, the second in the third, and so to the end-which lent their appearance a curious suggestion of imminent disintegration, akin to that of an unskilfully constructed sandwich. It was reserved for Henry John to startle the eye by the wholly unexpected-and, I submit, the wholly illogical eccentricity of his attire. He wore, unless my memory scurvily tricks me, a red flannel dolman and a white turban, the year around. I am bound to confess that there was always something, not

ence, as well. However, one can do no more than try.

The salivary glands, then, of Henry John were abnormally active in the performance of their function, and his swallowing powers limited to a degree. Resulted, upon his countenance, certain insufficiently drained tracts of territory, which knew no such thing as a dry season. To be added to this, as a factor contributory to his habitual appearance, was a notable instability of equipoise, whereby it is probable that he passed full fifty per cent. of his waking existence in a recumbent position, face downward, on the ground. For the majority of us, the fall of man is no more than an imperfectly substantiated incident in ancient history; for Henry John it was an ever-present need of

help in time of trouble. His sole salvation lay in the support afforded by the fraternal hand of William or of Alfy. United, he stood: divided, he fell-and copiously wept! Given this superfluity of facial moisture, and given, as well, this tendency to abrupt collapse, and it was but natural, I conceive, that Henry John should have uniformly, if ingenuously, displayed the dirtiest face that I have ever seen.

It remains only to speak, with necessarily incompetent eloquence, of the trio's drawl. If I did not thereby risk misapprehension, I should content myself with saying simply that they spoke at length. So, indeed, they did, but in the respect of quality, not quantity. As we passed them, starting for our walk or drive, the ceremony of greeting would run as follows:

The Elder Miss Blake: "Hello, William!" William (with rising inflection): "Hairlo-o-oh!"

The Younger Miss Blake: "Hello, Alfy!" Alfy (with rising inflection): "Hair-lo-ooh!"

The Misses Blake: "How are you today?"

William and Alfy: "Aw-w-l w-i-i-i-ite."

Myself: "How are you to-day?" Henry John (falling heavily to the earth): "Wa-a-a-ah! Hoo-00-00-00! Wa-ah-a-ah!"

Only once did I mention William, Alfy, and Henry John to Mrs. Enoch Blake. She raised her lorgnette languidly.

"Has Saunders children ?" she inquired. "How disgusting! It must be something new."

Yes, it was evident that she prided herself upon what she did not see.

In all, from visit to visit, I may have seen the trio thirty times. I do not remember that they ever grew in stature, changed in appearance, or altered their form of address, from first to last, until that famous Hallowe'en, and even then the transformation was fleeting. They reverted, almost instantly, to type.

I spent a Sunday in August with the Blakes, and, as I drove away from the big house on Monday morning, saw and hailed the three infants in front of the cottage. There was no audible reply. Henry John tottered giddily for an instant, under the unexpected shock of my salutation, and

then plunged forward and buried his face in the dusty driveway. His "Wa-a-a-ah! Hoo-00-00-00! Wa-ah-a-ah!" came faintly to my ears, as the runabout swerved into the main road. I returned about noon, on the last day of October, to find the face of Nature changed.

A half-mile from the big house, I passed the country school, and, perhaps fifty feet further on, an open, grassy space, upon which an astonishing spectacle met my eyes. Along the edge of the green-sward, in the warm Indian summer sunlight, were seated on a row of stones a score or so of children, intently observant. Before this assemblage, with eyes closed and arms outstretched, William and Alfy were heavily turning round and round, acquiring dizziness. As I watched them, amazed at this evidence of intelligent purpose, they suddenly collapsed and fell, amid shrieks of rapture from the spectators. Immediately the whole company were on their feet and in mo

tion, turning and turning, after the pattern set them, reeling, falling, rising, and repeating the experiment with tireless enthusiasm. In the midst of this I was aware of the eyes of William fixed upon me, and recalled the drollery of his accustomed replies.

"Hello, William!" said I. "How are you to-day?"

To my consternation William retorted with a gesture which for the first time in our acquaintance called my attention to the fact that he possessed a nose.

"Oh, fur-dge!" said he in a loud, bold voice, and

"Oh, fur-dge!" echoed Alfy and the twenty constituents in chorus, imitating to perfection their chief's contemptuous drawl.

I resumed my way, reflecting upon the benefits of education. For to my experienced mind it was at once evident, not only that William and Alfy had begun to go to school, but that, in their new environment, they had immediately assumed that commanding position to which their personality and talents undoubtedly entitled them. I was wondering, also, whether they had as yet arrived at the point of saying "Oh, fudge!" to the stately Mrs. Blake!

On the driveway leading up to the big house, I observed that the autumn leaves had fallen. So, also, Henry John. I set him on his feet, as I passed, and with my glove removed from his convulsed face a tithe of its accumulated grime.

“Hello, John Henry!" I said. “How are you to-day?"

"Wa-a-a-ah! Hoo-00-00-00! Wa-ah-aah!" quoth Henry John.

I went on, comforted. It was a heartening thing to find at least one unchanged reminder of simpler times.

The afternoon passed pleasantly. The weeks had but served to render Mrs. Blake the more magnificent, and she plied her lorgnette with a mastery which rendered me frankly uneasy on the score of an interview to come. The younger Miss Blake found fault with my scarf, during the ten minutes. which I managed to snatch. alone with her before tea, but, in some fashion which I will leave those who think they can guess at the relationship between us to divine, her scolding afforded me more satisfaction than another's commendation.

"It's too large and pudgy," said she. "I should think it would feel awfully uncomfortable, under your chin there."

"There is something," I suggested, "which I can imagine would feel awfully comfortable, just over my chin here!"

And, having obtained it, I contentedly gave my scarf to the butler next morning!

When we came to the tea-leaves and the last slice of marmaladed toast, I had a word in the patrician ear of Mrs. Blake:

"Will you come for a little walk outside?"

"I?" she inquired.

"Please!" I answered. "It's really important-very!"

Outside, the blue-black October evening, wind-blown, was full of the lisp of falling leaves and the distant booming of the sea. The smell of pines and red cedars was in the air. As the magnificent Mrs. Blake and I paced the piazza in silence, I searched for words which, somehow, did not come. Far off, to the right, little dots of yellow winked against the dark.

Here we came to a curve in the driveway, and, as if by arrangement, turned toward the house again. Then we halted abruptly.

What at a distance I had taken for fireflies were, in reality, the features, rudely carved, of infant pumpkins. They were now so near at hand that we could perceive the attempted symmetry of their relation— the round eyes, triangular noses, and widely gaping mouths. They moved, to be sure, but at so grotesquely inadequate an elevation from the ground as to hint that the bodies connected with them must indeed be those of the goblins which these uncouth visages suggested. As I reflected upon this, suddenly the solution became apparent.

m. w. P.

Surely, in all that country-side, there were no rational beings so short of stature as William, Alfy, and Henry John!

"These," said I, "will be the babes of Saunders."

"Has Saunders children?" asked Mrs. Blake again. "How revolting! But-children with illuminated heads?"

"It is Hallowe'en, dear lady," I ventured soothingly. "These are but Jack o' lanterns-the pranks of infancy."

But, even as I thus pleaded extenuating circumstances, I was appalled to notice the unwonted boldness of William, Alfy, and Henry John. They had wheeled into line, close to the window of the room where, by all the laws of logic, I should, at that very moment, have been donning evening dress, and before my last remark had died upon my lips, the voices of the trio rose in unison upon the evening air, in a wailing, longdrawn, and supposedly terrifying cry: "Borr-r-r-r-r!"

Here was progress! The three, who had formerly "stood afar off, gazing," had formed a conspiracy to frighten me, and were now deliberately carrying it out!

"Suppose I were to charge upon them," I suggested.

"By all means, do!" said Mrs. Enoch Blake. "The little imps! I wish you were a squadron of cavalry!"

Forthwith I charged, and, in the excite

ment of charging, uttered a sound which, both in volume and in blood-curdling unearthliness, surpassed my fondest expectations. I have since endeavored, on several occasions and in private, to reproduce it, but in vain. It was an inspiration of the moment, and the knack of making it, like that of quarrying a monolithic obelisk, is a lost art, a secret buried in the past.

The three illuminated heads plunged instantly to the ground. One, at least, of them was shattered by the shock, and split into a dozen fragments, the candle-end it had contained rolling out and flaring for an instant in the grass, before it was extinguished. The young trespassers fled without a sound, without even giving me the proof of actual vision to confirm my suspicions of their identity. I cut across a corner of the lawn, in the hope of heading them off, but the darkness, which was now intense, had swallowed them completely. I was retracing my steps, chuckling amusedly to myself, when two things happened simultaneously. Mrs. Enoch Blake was suddenly precipitated out of the deep shadows surrounding the house, landing full and fairly in my arms, and the silence was as abruptly rent by a piteous wail—

"I think I've come about twenty feet," she added, "trying to recover my balance, and-well, here I am!"

So that was it. In their panic William and Alfy had foully deserted Henry John! I need not dwell upon what immediately followed. Mrs. Enoch Blake was ten years my junior, and—if I may be permitted the expression-as charming as her two daughters rolled into one. (Which was precisely what I was upon the point of telling her, when we turned and saw the illuminated heads.)

The following morning we took a long walk, and on our return, came suddenly, at a little distance from the house, upon