"Genesis is waiting on the back porch," she said. "Really it isn't worth
your making all this fuss about."

"Oh no!" he returned, with plaintive satire. "It's nothing! Nothing at
all!"

"Why, _I_ shouldn't mind it," she said; briskly, "if I had the time. In
fact, I'll have to, if you won't."

"Ye gods!" He clasped his head in his hands, crushed, for he knew that
the curse was upon him and he must go. "Ye gods!"

And then, as he stamped to the door, his tragic eye fell upon Jane, and
he emitted a final cry of pain:

"Can't you EVER wash your face?" he shouted.




IV

GENESIS AND CLEMATIS

Genesis and his dog were waiting just outside the kitchen door, and
of all the world these two creatures were probably the last in whose
company William Sylvanus Baxter desired to make a public appearance.
Genesis was an out-of-doors man and seldom made much of a toilet; his
overalls in particular betraying at important points a lack of the