"I guess yuh ain't got any reason t' be alarmed.

Come out uh that corner and let 'em alone." I don't, to this day, know why I did it, but I quit hugging old King, and the other two fell back and gave me a clear path to the door.

"King was blackguarding dad, and I couldn't stand for it," I explained to Perry Potter as I went by.

"If you're not going, I won't." "I've got a letter to mail," he said, calm as if he were in his own corral.

"You went off before I got a chance to give it to yuh.