while the open lawn below the side porch is given up to roses!

I even crossed the fence in imagination, and took in the possibilities
of Opal Farm. If only I could have some one there to talk flowers and
other perplexities to, as you have Lavinia Cortright, without going
through the front gate!

Two hours must have passed in pleasant chat, for the hall clock, the
only one in the front part of the house we had not stopped, was chiming
eleven when wheels paused before the house and the latch of the gate
that swung both ways gave its double click!

"The hens have come!" I cried in dismay, the dream garden vanishing
before an equally imaginary chorus of clucks and crows.

Mr. Hale himself, the stable keeper, appeared at the house corner at the
same moment that Bart and _The Man_ reached it. Consternation sat upon
his features, and his voice was fairly husky as he jerked out,--"They've
gone,--clean gone,--Mr. Penrose, all three crates! and the dust is so
kicked up about that depot that you can't read out no tracks. Some
loafers must hev seen them come and laid to get in ahead o' you, as
hevin' signed the company ain't liable! What! don't you want to drive
down to the sheriff's?" and Mr. Hale's lips hung loose with dismay at
Bart's apparent apathy.

"Mr. Hale," said Bart, in mock heroic tones, "I thank you for your
sympathy, but because some troubles fall upon us unawares, it does not
follow that we should set bait for others!"

Whereupon Mr. Hale the next day remarked that he didn't know whether or