him a wife," and was told probably because he had so many guests that
there wasn't time. Interesting people were always coming and going about
the house; men famous for things they had done or written or painted.

Now as the Towncrier came nearer, he saw Georgina skipping along toward
him with her jumping rope. She was bare-headed, her pink dress fluttering
in the salt breeze, her curls blowing back from her glowing little face.
He would have hastened his steps to meet her, but his honest soul always
demanded a certain amount of service from himself for the dollar paid him
for each trip of this kind. So he went on at his customary gait, stopping
at the usual intervals to ring his bell and call his news.

At the Green Stairs Georgina paused, her attention attracted by a
foreign-looking battleship just steaming into the harbor. She was
familiar with nearly every kind of sea-going craft that ever anchored
here, but she could not classify this one. With her hands behind her,
clasping her jumping rope ready for another throw, she stood looking out
to sea. Presently a slight scratching sound behind her made her turn
suddenly. Then she drew back startled, for she was face to face with a
dog which was sitting on the step just on a level with her eyes. He was a
ragged-looking tramp of a dog, an Irish terrier, but he looked at her in
such a knowing, human way that she spoke to him as if he had been a
person.

"For goodness' sake, how you made me jump! I didn't know anybody was
sitting there behind me." It was almost uncanny the way his eyes twinkled
through his hair, as if he were laughing with her over some good joke
they had together. It gave her such a feeling of comradeship that she
stood and smiled back at him. Suddenly he raised his right paw and thrust
it towards her. She drew back another step. She was not used to dogs, and