"Good morning, Miss Kitty! Step in! step in! I'm pleased to see you. Take a seat, won't you?" Kitty sat down obediently, as she had done in the kitchen. John's tone was not Sarepta's: he was never autocratic. When Kitty was three, he had advanced the opinion that "this filly must be druv with the snaffle!" and had regulated his words and ways accordingly. "The horses look beautifully, John! Of course, they always do." John expected the horses might look worse. He didn't know as they would be special easy to beat in this county--or State, either, come to that! "What a beauty Pilot is! And dear old Dan is just as handsome in his way. I suppose they are quite valuable horses, John?" "I s'pose they be!" John Tucker spoke gruffly, and turned his head away. Something in the girl's tone and wistful look made his eyes smart. He put too much pepper on that fur robe, he knowed he did when he done it. Thus John Tucker, muttering. "I asked, John dear, because--" Kitty's hand was on his arm now, fingering his rough sleeve as she used to in the days when she sat on his knee and, being interrogated as to whose gal she was, replied, "Don Tutter's dal!"--"because--I suppose we ought to sell them, John Tucker, dear. There is very, very little money, you know. Was that what you wanted to see me about, John?" "Miss Kitty!" John Tucker turned his rugged face toward her now, and it was aglow with feeling: "Don't sell them hosses! That was what I wanted to say to you, and I say it again. Don't sell them hosses! If money is needed, and I'm aware it is, there is more money to be made by keepin' them hosses than by sellin' 'em. Lemme tell you; don't be mad with me, Miss Kitty, for I done the best I knew how." "Of course you did, John! As if you ever did anything else. Why do you look at me so strangely, John Tucker?" "Miss Kitty, I say it again, I done the best I knew how. Now lemme tell you! You remember Flanagan?" "Flanagan, the cab-driver? Of course I do! Why, I didn't see him at the station yesterday. Wasn't he there? He used to say he never missed a train." "He's missed consid'ble many lately," said John Tucker grimly. "Flanagan's complaint is that he's dead. Yes, ma'am," in answer to Kitty's exclamation, "dropped off settin' right there in his team at the depot. Folks was surprised." "I should think so! Why, Flanagan! Why, John, I should as soon think of the train's dying! What do people do without him?" John Tucker cleared his throat elaborately. "I happened to be there, and I drove the folks home that he'd come to fetch. That was the way it began." "The way what began, John Tucker?" John Tucker rose and looked out of the window.