A NOCTURNAL HUNTRESS 
“ Sh! girls,” warned Max, as Mabel and Alice 
came laughingly out on the piazza in the early 
gloaming. “We are listening to the night-time 
orchestra. Hark to the little bell-ringers! They 
are out in full force to-night. Uncle John saya 
if we want to see Warty to-morrow we will have 
to hunt for him down by the pond! There! 
hear that sturdy old throaty ' Clung! clung! * I 
just know that’s Warty. It sounds so sure and 
dependable.” 
“ Nonsense! ” Alice laughed softly. “ Warty 
is no bass singer. I’ll bet you anything that he 
pipes the highest tenor in the bunch.” 
“ Cling! cling! ” The notes wafted high, but 
softly, apparently from close beside the porch 
steps, and Alice had begun a gleeful “ I told you 
so! ” when Uncle John’s smiling face took form 
in the gloom, and he joined them with shoulders 
which shook as much from his mischievous laugh¬ 
ter as from the swift pommeling which Alice 
made haste to administer. 
“If you folks cant keep still,” growled 
Tommy, with a direfulness which needed no corn- 
186 
