Thus the Honorable Mr. Beasley, waving a handkerchief thrice around his
head and thrice cheering.

And the child, in that cricket's voice of his, replied:

"Br-r-ra-vo!"

This was the form of salutation familiarly in use between them. Beasley
followed it by inquiring, "Who's with us to-day?"

"I'm MISTER Swift," chirped the little fellow. "MIS-TER Swift, if you
please, Cousin David Beasley."

Beasley executed a formal bow. "There is a gentleman here who'd like to
meet you." And he presented me with some grave phrases commendatory of
my general character, addressing the child as "Mister Swift"; whereupon
Mister Swift gave me a ghostly little hand and professed himself glad to
meet me.

"And besides me," he added, to Beasley, "there's Bill Hammersley and Mr.
Corley Linbridge."

A faint perplexity manifested itself upon Beasley's face at this, a
shadow which cleared at once when I asked if I might not be permitted to
meet these personages, remarking that I had heard from Dowden of Bill
Hammersley, though until now a stranger to the fame of Mr. Corley
Linbridge.

Beasley performed the ceremony with intentional elegance, while the