"She looked so darned funny standin' there that I grabbed her right
up and kissed her.

"'If anybody tries to take that dolly away from you, you let _me_
know--skip!' says I, and down the aisle she runs hollerin': 'Oh,
papa, papa! Thee my dolly!' Seems she didn't have no mother, poor
little thing.

"Well, sir, old human nature is human nature, after all--elsewise
it would be a darned funny state of affairs--but anyhow, that
little gal's holler did something to my friends, the Oggsouashers.
I don't think I overstep the mark when I say some of 'em smiled a
kindly smile.

"'But I didn't have no time to study it. If I missed my freight I
stayed in Oggsouash over night, so, reasonin' thus, the tall form
of E. G. W. Scraggs might 'a' been seen proceedin' toward the
railroad track at the rate of seventeen statute miles per hour.
Just as I hooked on to the caboose comes a feller pastin' after me.

"'Say!' he whoops. 'Say! We want to thank you!'

"'Turn it in to the kids,' says I. 'Good-night, Oggsouash,
good-night,' I says, 'Partin' is such sweet sorrow that I could say
good-night as long as my wind held out.'

"Well, sir, it was nigh three in the mornin' when I hit Castle
Scraggs agin, after the coldest walk to be found anywhere outdoors;
but when Mrs. Scraggs come to the door--and it was one of the