"Yes, dear?"

"Mamma, what do you s'pose Willie barked at the lookin'-glass for?"

"That," said Mrs. Baxter, "is beyond me. Young people and children do
the strangest things, Jane! And then, when they get to be middle-aged,
they forget all those strange things they did, and they can't understand
what the new young people--like you and Willie mean by the strange
things THEY do."

"Yes'm. I bet _I_ know what he was barkin' for, mamma."

"Well?"

"You know what I think? I think he was kind of practisin'. I think he
was practisin' how to bark at Mr. Parcher."

"No, no!" Mrs. Baxter laughed. "Who ever could think of such a thing but
you, Jane! You go to sleep and forget your nonsense!"

Nevertheless, Jane might almost have been gifted with clairvoyance, her
preposterous idea came so close to the actual fact, for at that very
moment William was barking. He was not barking directly at Mr. Parcher,
it is true, but within a short distance of him and all too well within
his hearing.




X