again. "You know the house with the Little Red Chimney?" she asked.

The Candy Man did.

"Well, a nice old man named Uncle Bob lives there, and I asked him why
that chimney was red, and he said because it was new. A branch of a tree
fell on the old one. The tree where the squirrel house is, you know."

The Candy Man remembered the tree.

"He said the doctor was going to have it painted, but he kind of liked
it red, and so did her ladyship."

"And who might her ladyship be?" the Candy Man inquired.

"That's what I asked him, and he said, 'You come over and see,' and
then he said--now listen to this, for it's just like a story." Virginia
lifted an admonishing finger. "He said, whenever I saw smoke coming out
of that Little Red Chimney, I might know her ladyship had come to town.
You'd better believe I'm going to watch. And what do you think! I can
see it from our dining-room window!" she concluded.

"Most interesting," said the Candy Man politely, without the least idea
how interesting it really was.

Virginia's gaze suddenly fastened on a small book lying on the seat of
the Candy Wagon, and she had seized it before its owner could protest.
"What a funny name," she said. "'E p i c t e t u s.' What does that
spell? And what made you cut a hole in this page? It looks like a
window."