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"I certainly have begun to put on weight," laughed the rant pipe with a roll of blazing birch-bark

"My bearskin is getting tight You'll have to let it out for ic in the kitchen"

She s there at ease in the sunshine by the , sipping her coffee out of a gold cup with a solid gold spoon

Stern, feeling the May breeze upon his face, hearing the bird-songs in the forest depths, felt a well-being, a glow of health and joy such as he had never in his whole life known--the health of outdoor labor and sound sleep and perfect digestion, the joy of accoirl's near presence

"I suppose we do live pretty well," she answered, surveying the reue and peas, fried squirrel, partridge and coffee ought to satisfy anybody But still--"

"What is it?"

"I would like soar"

Stern laughed heartily

"You don't want much!" he exclaimed, vastly amused, the while he blew a cloud of Latakia s will coic On the fourth day you don't ih to round up the ten thousandth descendant of the erstwhile cow, do you?

"Or grow cane and rain for seed, clear sorind and bolt and present you with a bag of prime flour? Now really?"

She pouted at his raillery For a irl he looked a little while Then, his eyes a bit far-away, he remarked in a tone he tried to render casual: "By the way, Beatrice, it occurs torather well for old people--very old"

She looked up with a startled glance

"Very?" she exclaimed "You kno old then?"

"Very, indeed!" he answered "Yes, I've got some sort of an idea about it I hope it won't alarm you when you know"

"Why--how so? Alare expression

"Yes, because, you see, it's rather a long ti a little calculating, off and on, at odd tiether, as it were

"First, there was the uide me The rate of deposition of what, in one or two spots, can't have been anything less than cosmic or star-dust, is fairly certain