"Yes, it's getting some hot; but 'tain't nothing like on the rags last summer. It's like a real lady here." "A pretty warm lady, just the same," said Mickey. Then he brought water and leaving the door ajar for the first time, he soon started a draft; that with the coming of cooler evening lowered the child's temperature, and made her hungry. As he worked Mickey talked. The grass, the blooming orchard, the hen and her little downy chickens, the big cool porch, the wonderful woman and man, the boy whom they expected and who did not come; and then cautiously, slowly, making sure she understood, he developed his plan to take her to the country. Peaches drew back and opened her lips. Mickey promptly laid the washcloth over them. "Now don't begin to say you 'won't' like a silly baby," he said. "Try it and see, then if you don't like it, you can come right back. You want to ride in a grand automobile like a millyingaire lady, don't you? All the swells go away to the country for the summer, you got to be a swell lady! I ain't going to have you left way behind!" "Mickey, would you be there?" she asked. "Yes lady, I'd be right on the job!" said Mickey. "I'd be there a lot more than I am here. You go the week they wanted that boy, and he didn't come; then if you like it, I'll see if they won't board you, and you can have a nice little girl to play with, and a fat, real baby, and a boy bigger than me--and you should see Peter!" Peaches opened her lips, Mickey reapplied the cloth. "Calm down now!" he ordered. "I've decided to do it. We got to hump ourselves. This is our _chance_. Why there's milk, and butter, and eggs, and things to eat there like you never tasted, and to have a cool breeze, and to lie on the grass----" "Oh Mickey, could I?" cried Peaches. "Sure silly! Why not?" said Mickey. "There's big fields of it, and the cows don't need it all. You can lie on the grass, or the clover, and hear the birds, and play with the children. I'll take a day and get things started right before I leave you to come to work, like I'll have to. When I come at night, I'll carry your outdoors; why I'll take you down to the water and you can kick your feet in it, where it's nice and warm; all the time you can have as many flowers as your hands will hold; and such bird singing, why Lily Peaches O'Halloran, there are birds as red as blood, yes ma'am, and yellow as orange peel and light blue like this ribbon and dark blue like that--hold still 'til I fix you--and such singing!" "Mickey, would you hold me?" wavered Peaches. "Smash anybody that lays a finger on you, unless you say so," said Mickey promptly. "And you'd stay a whole day?" she asked anxiously. "Sure!" cried Mickey. "An' if I was afraid you'd bring me back?" she went on. "Sure! Right away!" he promised. "An' they wouldn't anybody 'get' me there?" "'Way out there 'mong the clover?" scoffed Mickey. "Why it's _here_ they'll '_get_' you if they are going to. Nobody out there _wants_ you, but me."