The ocean is no place for a battleship these days." "Stop your kidding!" "I'm not kidding," said John Wesley indignantly.

"I never was twice as serious in my whole life.

My plan is sound, statesman-like--" "Shut up, you idiot! I want to read." "Oh, very well, then! I'll grind the coffee." Men crept close to the open door on each side of the kitchen.

Stella slipped a pan of biscuits in the oven; she laid the table briskly, with a merry clatter of tinware; her face was cheerful and unclouded.
The Major leaned back in one chair, his feet on another; he was deep in the paper; he puffed his pipe.

John Wesley Pringle twirled the coffee mill between his knees and sang a merry tune: _"There were three little mice, playing in the barn-- Inky, dinky, doodum, day! Though they knew they were doing what was very, very wrong-- Inky, dinky, doodum, day! And the song of the owls, it sounded so nice That closer and closer crept the three little mice.
And the owls came and gobbled them----"_ A shadow fell across the floor.
"Hands up!" said the sheriff of Dona Ana.