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 the fashion of that modest day. Angus Valorous thought she was pretty fair, although he liked them bulging a little more in places, his preference having been shaped by an intimate study of the Police Gazette.

Pap Cowgill must have felt the radiation of his adored through the screen door. He twisted on the bench and looked around, waved her a greeting with his Tulip Rose, and pushed Goosie along the bench to make room for her.

"Hello, Louise!" he hailed, a deferential eagerness in his slow voice. "Come on out and rest your hu-huhands and face."

Louise went out, laughing a little over Pap's pleasantry, as polite railroad society required in such case.

"Well, Louise, did you get rested up from your trip?" Mrs. Cowgill inquired, with the kindly note that softened her voice when she spoke to some people, notably Tom Laylander and Louise.

"I was so used up I took a sleep after supper," Louise replied.

"Folks always have to rest up and recover after a vacation," Myron said. "I knew a man back in Illinois—"

"You must 'a' took a vacation the same time he did, you've been restin' up ever since," Mrs. Cowgill interrupted him, quick to grasp this opportunity to slam Myron before the boarders.

There was a laugh, in which Banjo Gibson's gay and care-free voice rose loud, for nobody in the world appreciates a joke against a loafer like one of the craft.