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"What's that noise?" Barnaby B said suddenly "I hear so!"

"It's at the front of the house," Jane said, listening "So"

After a moment the noise ceased They all went to look More words had been added to the sign that was tacked to thebox

"Reduced? Cheaper? This house is never going to be sold," Ti in an Aphrodite-like way

11 An Astonishing acquisition

Commander Melanoff opened the door and peered into the basket in astonishment He looked up and down the street to see if a deliveryon his doorstep by mistake

But no The street was quite e at hi ti it at arth because its lower half was damp, Commander Melanoff carried the stubbly-haired baby into his mansion

He looked around for a suitable place to set it down The velvet couch in the drawing rooray wads of stuffing were protruding from the holes There was a table nearby, but an old, opened pizza box with soreenish pizza crusts inside had been on the table for weeks Ants were crawling on it

Finally he carried the creature into the kitchen and laid it carefully on the drain board beside the sink Fro back sadly to his own lost child, he vaguely remembered the procedure about diapers In a nearby drawer, reaching with one ar infant, he located a folded dishtowel He had not washed dishes in several years He had thrown some away after they had been used, and others he had reused, si his takeout Chinese food or pizza slices onto the remains of the last meal So there was still a drawer filled with laundered dishtowels, left over froe kitchen, the days when his wife had organized things like dish-towels by color and size and date of purchase He fashioned one into a sort of diaper and tied it aardly around the botto the baby in one arerator and peered inside

Once, long ago, this refrigerator had been filled with juices and jareens and truffles and endives and olives It had always been a little distressing to hieyle socks in his dresser, and his underas tucked aith the umbrellas Even here, in the kitchen, one had had to locate the anchovies in order to find the apricots Still, he thought wistfully, it had been pleasing to have the refrigerator filled with food

Noas coreen and furry on the bottom and a stack of test candy bars for his factory He had been, before his tragedy, working on a new bar filled with caramel and nuts in various coht, then, that it would be his e, lay in uneven stacks on a refrigerator shelf He groaned slightly when he saw them and closed the heavy door

He reached for the telephone, balanced it on his shoulder, and dialed the nurocery store and pizza parlor

"This is Corocer answered "Deliver lanced at the baby, -- "oats to wrap around the bottorocer

"I aested the grocer "Or, if you are truly old-fashioned, they would be called nappies"

"Yes, those"

"Anything else, sir?"

"Oh, dear" Commander Melanoff whimpered a bit "I don't know"

"Have you acquired an infant, sir?"

The coed

"What size, sir?"

The melancholy tycoon looked down at it He remembered holiday celebrations of the past "The size of a small turkey," he said

"That would be about fourteen to sixteen pounds, I'd say Does it have teeth, sir?"

Cradling the telephone again on his shoulder, Coerly used his free hand to pry open the small mouth so that he could look inside "A few," he said "Three, I think And very stubbly hair"

"Does it appear capable of chewing, sir?"

At that er

"Ouch! Yes, it does," he said into the telephone

"Very good, sir Our delivery boy will be there shortly with everything you need And shall we send tonight's pizza at the same time?"

Gloomily Commander Melanoff looked around the kitchen The remains of at least twenty-three pizzas--old crusts dotted with decaying pepperoni slices--and their torn-open, stained boxes were stacked on countertops and tables everywhere Then he looked at the infant still in his arrocer with a sigh "Send a salad and soorate myself