Collect for two guinea-pigs, fifty cents.
Deliver all to consignee."
Flannery read the telegram and cheered up. He wrote out a bill as rapidly
as his pencil could travel over paper and ran all the way to the Morehouse
home. At the gate he stopped suddenly. The house stared at him with vacant
eyes. The windows were bare of curtains and he could see into the empty
rooms. A sign on the porch said, "To Let." Mr. Morehouse had moved!
Flannery ran all the way back to the express office. Sixty-nine
guinea-pigs had been born during his absence. He ran out again and made
feverish inquiries in the village. Mr. Morehouse had not only moved, but
he had left Westcote. Flannery returned to the express office and found
that two hundred and six guinea-pigs had entered the world since he left
it. He wrote a telegram to the Audit Department.
"Can't collect fifty cents for two dago pigs consignee has left town
address unknown what shall I do? Flannery."
The telegram was handed to one of the clerks in the Audit Department, and
as he read it he laughed.
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