Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley

"But how are you going to buy a cow?" persisted his inquisitor.

"I ain't got that fer yet," admitted the young dairyman.

"Your dollar'll buy more than the nails for your cow-house. You can put

the balance into feed," said the grocer, with an eye to his own trade.

He wanted to add that it wouldn't cost much to feed an imaginary

critter, but he was a little fearful of the temper back of the lad's

hair, which was the same hue as Amarilly's.

"That's a good idea. Well, the shed starts to-morrow, and of course you

won't say nothin' about it."

"Trust me for not talking in this neighborhood. It ain't safe even to

think. First you know your thoughts are being megaphoned down the

street."

Gus consulted the Boarder who instantly and obligingly began the

erection of a building in the farthest corner of the Jenkins's domain.

This structure was a source of mystery and excitement to the neighbors.

"What on airth do you suppose them Jenkinses air aputtin' up now? Mebby

it's a wash-house for the surpluses," speculated Mrs. Huce.

"It can't be they air agoin' to keep a hoss!" ejaculated Mrs. Wint.

"You never kin tell nuthin' about them Jenkinses. They're so sort of

secretin' like," lamented Mrs. Hudgers.

The Jenkins family were fully as ignorant as were their neighbors of the

nature of the contemplated occupant of the new edifice commonly referred

to as the "cow-house," The Boarder put up a very substantial shed with a

four-paned window and a door that locked though not very securely. The

grocer had on hand a small quantity of green paint which he donated to

the cause of the coming cow.

"Thar ain't enough to more'n paint two sides of it," criticized Gus, "so

I'll paint the front and west sides."

"Thar's a can of yaller paint out in the woodshed," informed Mrs.

Jenkins. "You can paint the other two sides with that."

Then the Boarder made a suggestion: "If I was you, I'd paint a strip of yaller and then one of green.

That'll even it up and make it fancy-like."

Amarilly protested against this combination of colors so repellent to

artistic eyes, but the family all agreed that it "would be perfickly

swell," so she withdrew her opposition and confided her grievance to

Derry's sympathizing, shuddering ears.

Gus proceeded to bicolor the shed in stripes which gave the new building

a bedizened and bilious effect that delighted Colette, who revelled in

the annals of her proteges.