The Road to Dumbiedykes 



me in whispers tense that I must come 

 with her to the open window and 

 listen. There was a burglar prowling 

 around somewhere in the yard ! It was 

 an old man, she knew, because she 

 heard him cough! Now, just how it 

 was figured out that our midnight 

 intruder was well along in years I 

 have never been able to make out. 

 But, anyhow, the bronchial trouble, or 

 whatever the inciting cause, presently 

 induced another cough, which, from 

 a one-time intimacy with "the lowing 

 herd," I was not long in diagnosing as 

 of bovine origin, and emanating from 

 neighbor Clark's adjacent pasture. 

 So, after an argument more or less 

 drawn out, in the course of which my 

 alleged knowledge of cows was called 

 into point-blank question, I induced 

 the flock to settle down again in search 

 of slumber. Needless to say that after 

 the mere suggestion of a housebreaker 

 skulking somewhere in the lilacs, all 

 slept with one eye and both ears open, 



[58] 



