Dab Kinzer | Page 8

him the old farmer was pointing in answer to a question which had just
been asked him.
The questioner was the sharp-eyed boy who had bothered poor Dick
Lee that morning, and he was now evidently making a sort of "study"
of Dab Kinzer.
At that moment, however, a young lady--quite young--came tripping
along the sidewalk, and was stopped by Dabney, with,--
"There, Jenny Walters! If I didn't forget my label!"
"Why, Dabney! Is that you? How you startled me! Forgot your label?"
"Yes," said Dab; "I'm in another new suit today; and I meant to have a
label on the collar, with my name on it. You'd have known me then."
"But I know you now," exclaimed Jenny. "Why, I saw you yesterday."
"Yes, and I told you it was me. Can you read, Jenny?"
"Why, what a question!"
"Because, if you can't, it won't do me any good to wear a label."

"Dabney Kinzer!" exclaimed Jenny, "there's an other thing you ought to
get."
"What's that?"
"Some good manners," said the little lady snappishly. "Think of your
stopping me in the street to tell me I can't read!"
"Then you mustn't forget me so quick," said Dab. "If you meet my old
clothes anywhere you must call them Dick Lee. They've had a change
of name."
"So he's in them, is he? I don't doubt they look better than they ever did
before."
Jenny walked away at once, at the end of that remark, holding her head
pretty high, and leaving her old playmate feeling as if he had had a
little the worst of it. That was often the way with people who stopped
to talk with Jenny Walters, and she was not as much of a favorite as she
otherwise might have been.
Dabney looked after her with his mouth puckered into shape for a
whistle; but she had hardly disappeared before he found himself
confronted by the strange young gentleman.
"Is your name Dabney Kinzer?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"Well, I'm Mr. Ford Foster, from New York."
"Come over here to buy goods?" suggested Dabney. "Or to get
something to eat?"
Ford Foster was apparently of about Dab's age, but a full head less in
height, so that there was more point in the question than there seemed
to be; but he treated it as not worthy of notice, and asked,--
"Do you know of a house to let anywhere about here?"

"House to let?" suddenly exclaimed the voice of Mrs. Kinzer, behind
him, much to Dab's surprise. "Are you asking about a house? Whom
for?"
Ford Foster had been quite ready to "chaff" Dick Lee, and he would not
have hesitated about trying a like experiment upon Mr. Dabney Kinzer;
but he knew enough to speak respectfully to the portly and
business-like lady before him now.
"Yes, madam," he said, with a ceremonious bow: "I wish to report to
my father that I have found an acceptable house in this vicinity."
"You do!"
Mrs. Kinzer was reading the young gentleman through and through, as
she spoke; but she followed her exclamation with a dozen questions, all
of which he answered with a good deal of clearness and intelligence.
She wound up at last, with,--
"Go right home, then, and tell your father the only good house to let in
this neighborhood will be ready for him next week. I'll show it to him
when he comes, but he'd better see me at once. Dabney, jump into the
buggy. I'm in a hurry."
The ponies were in motion, up the street, before Ford Foster quite
recovered from the shock of being told to "go right home."
"A very remarkable woman," he muttered, as he turned away, "and she
did not tell me a word about the house, after all. I must make some
more inquiries. The boy is actually well dressed, for a place like this."
"Mother," said Dabney, as they drove along, "you wouldn't let 'em have
Ham's house, would you?"
"No, indeed. But I don't mean to have our own stand empty."
With that reply a great deal of light broke in upon Dab's mind.
"That's it, is it?" he said to himself, as he touched up the ponies. "Well,

there'll be room enough for all of us there, and no mistake. But what'll
Ham say?"
That was a question which he could safely leave to the very responsible
lady beside him; and she found "errands" enough for him, during the
remainder of that forenoon, to keep him from worrying his mind about
any thing else.
As for Ford Foster, it was not until late on the following day that he
completed all his "inquiries" to his satisfaction. He took the afternoon
train for the city, almost convinced that, much as he undoubtedly knew
before he