Murphy turned, his face red with delight at his surprise. "There ye are, miss," he cried proudly. "A round dozen av them, with their lord an’ master. I couldn’t let that Mike Costigan go puttin’ on his airs over his boss, so now there’ll be aigs for aignoggs that I’ll have a claim to. For safe-keepin’ we’ll build th’ coop in yore back yard where it will be right handy for ye. Ye can now tell Williams to kape his aigs. If he don’t understand yer soft language, I’ll be tellin’ him in a way he can’t mistook." "You angel!" whispered Jane, tears in her eyes. She was not misled by his remarks about eggnoggs. "Oh, Tim--you shouldn’t have done it! Why didn’t _I_ think of it? And how is it that Mrs. Costigan suddenly needs a cow? If I’ve heard her aright, she has stalwart, old-fashioned ideas, bless her, about nursing children. And I never knew she was partial to eggnoggs. Jerry, what shall we do to them?" Jerry blew his nose with energy. "For a cent I’d lick Murphy right now, and Mike immediately afterward," he laughed, sizing up the huge bulk of bone, sinew, and toil-hardened muscle of the section-boss. "Tim, you and your boys are the one redeeming feature of this country. And you redeem it fully. How long have you been plotting this?" "G’wan with ye, th’ pair av ye!" chuckled the section-boss, his face flaming. "If Casey hadn’t stopped th’ train down by this shed yesterday we couldn’t ’a’ surprised ye. Ye never saw a consignment handled quicker or more gintly." "And I was wondering why he did it," confessed Jerry. "The brakeman said he was trying his brakes. Tim, you should be ashamed of yourself!" "An’ I’ve been that, many a time," retorted Murphy. He turned to Tex. "I’ll be leavin’ it to ye, Mr. Jones, if a man hasn’t certain rights after bein’ nursed for three weeks by a brown-haired angel, an’ knowin’ that th’ same angel nursed Mrs. Costigan an’ th’ twins whin they was all down with th’ measles. Patient an’ unselfish, she was, with never a cross word, day or night--an’ always with a smile on her pretty face, like th’ sun on Lake Killarney." Tex looked gravely and judicially at Jane Saunders. "You haven’t a word to say, Miss Saunders. The verdict of the court is for the defendant. Case dismissed, without costs of either party against the other." He turned to the section-boss. "When are we buildin’ that coop, Murphy?" he asked. "Tomorrow, Tex," answered the Irishman. "We’ll be after runnin’ th’ darlin’s up there right away, an’ come back for th’ lumber an’ wire. That’ll give us an early start. Th’ sidin’ will let us ride ’em near halfway an’ save a lot of flounderin’ in th’ sand."