"Go on," says Aunt Martha. "Tell us the worst. What is it?" "It's a case of standin' broad jump," says I, "from housekeeper to governess, with an age handicap and a crooked entry." Course, I has to work out the details for 'em, and when I've stated the whole hideous plot, from the passing of Truckles the Thirsty to the high pride of Katy the Barkeep's Bride, includin' the tale of the stolen character and chuckin' the nervy bluff--well, they didn't any of 'em know what to say. They just stands around gawpin' curious at this sobbin', wabbly kneed old party slumped down there on the hall seat. Aunt Martha, actin' as prosecutor for the State, is the first to recover. "Well, there's no knowin' how far she might have gone," says she. "And she ought to be punished some way. Pinckney, what are you going to do with her?" For a minute he looks from Aunt Martha to the object in the middle of the circle, and then he drops them black eyelashes lazy, like he was half-asleep, and I knew somethin' was coming worth listenin' to. "Considering all the circumstances," says Pinckney, "I think we shall discharge Marie, increase Mrs. Truckles' salary, give her an assistant, and ask her to stay with us permanently. Eh, Geraldine?" And Geraldine nods hearty. "Pinckney, let's shake on that," says I. "Even if your head is full of soap bubbles, you've got an eighteen-carat heart in you. Hear the news, Mrs. Truckles?" "Then--then I'm not to go to jail?" says she, takin' her hands off her face and lookin' up straight and steady for the first time in months. "Jail nothin'!" says I. "There's goin' to be a new deal, and you start in fresh with a clean slate." "Humph!" snorts Aunt Martha. "Do you expect me to stay here and countenance any such folly?" "I'm far too considerate of my relatives for that," says Pinckney. "There's a train at five-thirty-six." And, say, to see Mrs. Truckles now, with her gray hair showin' natural, and her chin up, and a twin hangin' to either hand, and the sleuthy look gone out of them old eyes, you'd hardly know her for the same party! These antelope leaps is all right sometimes; but when you take 'em you want to be wearin' your own shoes. CHAPTER XIII HEINEY TAKES THE GLOOM CURE Two in one day, mind you. It just goes to show what effect the first dose of hot weather is liable to have on the custard heads. Well, maybe I oughtn't to call 'em that, either. They can't seem to help gettin' that way, any more'n other folks can dodge havin' bad dreams, or boils on the neck. And I ain't any mind specialist; so when it comes to sayin' what'll soften up a man's brain, or whether he couldn't sidestep it if he tried, I passes the make.