"Why, yes! It was a horrid little shop, half full of papers and magazines, half full of tobacco and pipes, and half full of these poor dears. Of course it was a good deal of money, but what were we to do? It was Jim who cost the most—oh, Denis, have you got the rest of the mice?" "This beast of a midnight caroller has scratched a hunk of flesh out of my hand, and all because I saved a mouse from her cattish jaws!" He was holding a thin and mangy tabby cat at arm’s length. "Why didn’t you let her catch it? It is perfectly ridiculous to be so childish at your age!" Poor Miss Kezia could not find words to express her utter disapproval and want of understanding. "Well," observed Denis, "’twould be playing it pretty low to buy half-a-dozen tame mice and give ’em to the cat. I expect, if their opinion were asked, you’d find they preferred even the old Jew’s cage to the cat’s interior." Miss Kezia gave some final directions; there was a subdued fury in eye and voice due as much to her inadequacy to the occasion as to her anger at the havoc wrought in her well-ordered house. The monkey coughed softly, and Sarah, still weeping in the background, screamed. Sheila Pat appeared, climbed on to a chair, and lifted the monkey down. The monkey put a thin arm round her neck in a horribly human way. Sheila Pat kissed his face, and Miss Kezia called out in irrepressible horror. "I love him," the Atom said calmly. "He’s just ’zact like my dearrest Patsy O’Driscoll." The monkey’s bright little eyes blinked knowingly. "I believe he’s a first cousin," Denis declared. "Ever been to Kilbrannan, old man? Played hand-ball on summer evenings on Patsy’s wall, eh? Driven Kate in the jaunting-car? D’you know the road up-along by Dinny O’Sullivan’s? Sure ye’ll be meetin’ the doctor’s house to the west—ah, yes, thin, ye’re knowin’ that all right. Look at him smiling, Nell!" Miss Kezia turned a stiff back upon them and walked into her bedroom. "She doesn’t appreciate you, Jim." Jim coughed delicately. It was a funny little soft deprecating cough. "He is just like Patsy," Nell said. "If we were to dress him up and put him on the box seat of the jaunting-car, he’d be acknowledged by his own mother!" Miss Kezia’s bedroom door was opened. "You will please to send off all those creatures to-day—and at once!" It was several hours before her mandate was obeyed. The packing took a considerable time. During those hours the monkey crept more and more into their affections. "I think," opined Nell, "it’s positively wicked to send him on a long, cold journey with a nasty little cough like that!" "I shall feel as if I’m murdering one of my own relations," Denis agreed. Sheila Pat put a protecting arm round the monkey.