“ A TRAMP WITH REDSKINS,” 251 
but had probably been peeping through the bars and 
had overheard the conversation of his three grand- 
mothers, now turned uneasily in his hammock and 
seemed to have an inkling that his fate was sealed. The 
poor baby was triumphantly presented to me as a deus 
ex machina. { was utterly puzzled. Then I was made 
to understand that I was to cure the baby by blowing 
on it three times, and that if I would only do that 
its grandmothers would, by hook or by crook—but chiefly, 
as will presently appear by the latter—find a way of 
inducing the malingerer to do the porter’s work required 
of him. I did not then stop mentally to argue out the 
matter, but the thought has often since occurred to me 
when thinking of that pathetic little baby, and hoping that 
I at least did it no harm, that I then lost a splendid 
opportunity for carefully weighing the morality of, before 
committing, an expedient aétion. A casuist, might 
well ask whether I was justified in gaining my end 
by complying with the wish of these old women. Not 
being a casuist, | immediately blew three times on the 
forehead of the poor little child. The delighted old 
women picked up the crooked sticks which supported 
their rather feeble steps and retired triumphantly. 
After depositing the baby in its dark corner, they 
drew the palm-leaf door across the entrance to the 
house, leaving me outside. As in a Greek tragedy, 
the climax was enaéted behind the scenes. Soon I heard 
sounds from within as of all the old women talking, 
persuading, threatening, at once; but never an answer 
was heard from the young man. Then followed other 
sounds, as of carpet-beating; and an answer, a sort 
of inarticulate answer, was at last heard from the young 
