Mr. Stamps obeyed without making any noise whatever. It was one of his amiable peculiarities that he never made any noise, but appeared and disappeared without giving any warning, making himself very agreeable thereby at inopportune moments. He slipped in without a sound, deftly left the door in its previous position, and at once slipped into a chair, or rather took possession of one, by balancing himself on the extreme edge of it, arranging his legs on the lower bar with some dexterity. "Howdy?" he said, meekly, having accomplished this. Tom's manner was not cordial. He stretched himself, put his hands in his pockets, and made no response to the greeting which was, upon the whole, a rather unnecessary one, as Mr. Stamps had been hanging about the post-office through the whole day, and had only wended his way homeward a few hours before. "Want anything?" he enquired. Mr. Stamps turned his hat around in his hands hurriedly. "No, I don't want nothin', Tom," he said. Then, after a pause, he added, very softly: "I jest thought I'd step in." "Where are you going?" asked Tom. The hat was turned round again. "Whar wus I a-gwine?" deprecatingly. "Whar? Oh! I--I was a-gwine--I was a-gwine to Marthy's, I guess." "You're pretty late," remarked Tom; "better lose no time; it's a pretty bad road between here and there." "So 'tis," replied Mr. Stamps, apparently struck with the originality of the suggestion. "So 'tis!" He appeared to reflect deeply for a few seconds, but suddenly his eyes began to wander across the room and rested finally upon the corner in which the cradle stood. He jerked his head towards it. "It's thar, is it?" he enquired. "Yes, she's thar," Tom answered, rather crustily. "What of it?" "Oh! nothin', nothin', Tom, only it's kinder curi's--kinder curi's." "Well," said Tom, "I've not begun to look at it in that light yet myself." "Hain't ye, now?" softly. "Hain't ye, Tom?" Then a faint little chuckle broke from him--not an intrusive chuckle, quite the contrary; a deprecatory and inadvertent sort of chuckle. "That ain't me," he ventured, inoffensively. "I've been a-thinkin' it was curi's all along." "That ain't going to hurt anybody," responded Tom. "Lord, no!" quite in a hurry. "Lord, no! 'tain't likely; but it kinder int'rusted me--int'rusted me, findin' out what I did." And he ended with a gently suggestive cough. Tom thrust his hands deeper into his pockets and covered as large an area of floor with his legs as was possible without upsetting Mr. Stamps's chair and at the same time that stealthy little man himself. "Oh! found out!" he replied, "Found out h----" He checked himself with much suddenness, glancing at the cradle as he did so. "What did you find out?" he demanded, unceremoniously, and with manifest contempt. "Let's hear." Mr. Stamps coughed again.