"What's your rush?" I asked, when I had overtaken him. _Frontispiece_ Uncle Issachar 10 Dr. Felix Polydore 23 "Lucien Wade!" she gasped. "Here are our letters to Beth and Rob." 80 He pleaded eloquently to be taken with us. 102 I babbled aimlessly to myself and then managed to pull together and beat it to the lake 126 The landlady intears waylaid me 132 I had to carry Diogenes most of the way 168 Now and then above his howls, I heard Silvia's plaintive protests outside the door 192 I held out my hand, which he shook solemnly, but with an injured air 224 "He went to the front window and dropped a young kitten down on the old gent's head." 242 "We heard a suppressed sneeze, and Rob pulled Emerald from underneath." 256 OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOURS CHAPTER I _About Silvia and Myself_ Some people have children born unto them, some acquire children and others have children thrust upon them. Silvia and I are of the last named class. We have no offspring of our own, but yesterday, today, and forever we have those of our neighbor. We were born and bred in the same little home-grown city and as a small boy, even, I was Silvia's worshiper, but perforce a worshiper from afar. Her upcoming had been supervised by a grimalkin governess who drew around the form of her young charge the awful circle of exclusiveness, intercourse with child-kind being strictly prohibited. Children are naturally gregarious little creatures, however, and Silvia on rare occasions managed to break parole and make adroit escape from surveillance. Then she would speed to the top of the boundary wall that separated the stable precincts from an alluring alley which was the playground of the plebeian progeny of the humble born. To the circle of dirty but fascinating ragamuffins she became an interested tangent, a silent observer. Here I had my first meeting with her. I was not of her class, neither was I to the alley born, but sailed in the sane mid-channel that ameliorates the distinction between high and low life.