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The Brussels Post, 1893-5-12, Page 2THE BRUSSELS POST. :VI AV 12, 1Stn3 a6ntro Ganon umno. moun1ft�R mirrt1W9.O1Wi94fN.'✓a7menome,GDYA'M�YWY!MFf•11arnvoommaa warm 9m9A1�II mi 111TIIGR,�--P,.v�-�y'••'�naa.m,axa rNln%0,R[UlEtA1PR'SID11a1RiYait�i0>oY16Y1�{Y�INIWVi4'�'W'--••••e�r�an _. _ �. ....�.�: HIS HEIRESS ; 011, LOV1' 1 le AI,\V AYE TILE le. gray coal, the e areett is nrld.a, : tet menu CHAPTER IV, takahlet"hs hive:, tray to a ,iotl'.ir'd Adel thenhe.aelet y tp atrai io .,'wort:. Ostentation. And tints.honuwteteyp ave. I'd a thin -. I , You knot; hint? It is true, then. Ile And c0, . steep o my' on." , 1 A ciao ,aids ' AtThore is a atlenlcevthat lasts for quite a b a oorsou of bad '1 Mrs. in the neigh. 1 bombe>ad," esE•taima'1 lira. llaryl, looking round at her. " Oh ! as to that, no ! I don't think it is a burglar," says Ma•,.;ary, temporizing desgrauefully. " It's—it's nobody in fact. I fancy, as well as I can see, that it is a Mr. Bellew !" "Ah t" lira: 1±illy grows even more thoughtful, " Mr. Bellew seems rather ;track with the house l An architect, per. leaps ?" " No. Only a neighbor. A friend of the boys, in fact, He conies here to see them very often." elms. Bills'. " That's kind of him," says , She laughs a little, " One would think it was the house he came to see," site goes on, meditatively ; "et leant, that portent of it where the school -roost etindows begin. By the bye, Meg, it is there yell sit, its a rule, eh ? I'd keep my eye on that yoanet man, if I were you, He is up to something ; I hope it isn't theft." ' 1 hope not," returns Mise Daryl, with an attempt at indifference. Then she gives way as she catches the other's eye, and breaks into petulant laughter. " He is a thorough nuisance," she says, in a vexed tone. ' He is never off the premises." " The boys are :. o attractive," adds Mrs. Billy, " At that rate, I expect the sooner 1 become acquainted wlth him the better. Take mo down, Meg, and bring me face to face with him. As you evidently can't bear him, I suppose I had stetter begin well and rout him with great slaughter at this our first meeting. Shall I exterminate him with a blow, or—" "Do anything yea like to him," says Meg, who is evidently full of rage when she thinks of the invader. When they get to the small armory door, however, that leads directly into the gar- den, she comes to a sudden halt. " I think if ynu will walk rather slowly, I will just run on and tell him you are corn- ing," she says rather jerkily, looking ask- ance at her companion as 1f a little b ashamed of her suggestion, and then without waiting for an answer, speeds away from her, swift as an arrowfrom the bow. ' Just warn him that I'm coming— and so is his last hour," calls out Mrs. Bil- ly after her, convulsed with laughter. But bliss Daryl refuses to hear. She hurtle& ou through the old fashioned garden, full of its quaint fiowerbeds, and odd yew hedges cut in fantastic shapes—past a moss•grown sundial, and the strutting peacocks and their discordant scream, until she rune almost into Mr. Bellew's willing arms. " Ah t here you are at last," cries the young man in an accent of undisturbed de- light as she comes up to him breathless. "I thought you'd neerr come ! Such a century as iotas seemed. Three weeks in town and not a line from you. You night have written one, I think ! I got back an hour ago, and hurried over here to—" "Make an ass of yourself 1" interrupts Itliss Daryl, wrathfully, who unconsciously adopted a good many of her brother's pretty phrases. " And lone .' looking round her, is this the only place you could think of? Is therm no drawing•room in the house that you mast needs be found prowling about the shrubberies? Anything more outrage- ous than your behavior could hardly be imagined 1" " \Vhy, what on earth have 1 been doing now?" demands Mr. Bellew, in a bewilder- ed tone. "Mrs. Daryl has been gazing at you through an upper window for the last. ten minutes, and very naturally came to the conclusion that you were s. person of no charaoter whatsoever. She was nearer the mark than she knew?" puts in Miss Daryl, viciously, "I didn't betray you." "Mrs. Daryl? What 1 The new woman," anxiously. "New? One would think she was a pur- chase. What an extraordinary way we speak of one's aiater•in•law," exclaims Meg, who is determined to give quarter nowhere. " Yes," she was so annoyed by your prowl- ing that she is coming round presently to give you a bit of her mind." " Bless me! I hope not 1" says Mr. Bel• lew, who probably had never known fear until this moment. "I—I think I'll go," he says, falteringly. You can't, She's coming. Why on earth couldn't you have called at the hall door like any other decent Christian?" " Well, so I did," indignantly, " I did the regulation thing right through. Knock• ed at the ' front door : asked for Mr. Daryl; heard he was out; left my card, and then thought Ted come round here to look for you." ' t\ ell, I won't have it!"—decisively. "I won't be followed about by anything but my own terrier, and I distinctly refuse to be made by you the laughingstock of the world. Sho was dying with laughter. I could see that, 1 tell you she thought first you had designs of the house. 1 had to ex- plain you away, I had "—angrily—" to assure her you weren't a burelar,but only a person called Curzon Bellew," This contemptuously, and as though Cur- zon Bellew was a person dlstiuetly inferior to the burglar. "I won't come here at all if it displeases you," says Mr. Bellew, in a white heat. "day the word, and I go forever I" There is something tragic about this. "Go, and joy go with you I" returns she, scornfully. "That is a kinder wish than you mean," says the young man, clasping her lands. "No. I won't go. Would I take joy from you? And do your words mean that if I went, joy would of necessity go tool" "Go, too," repeats Miss Daryl, but in a very different tone, and then, as though ion. pelted to it by the glad youth within them, they both buret out laughing. After a while Mr, Bellew grows grave again. ' Well," asks he, confidentially, "what do you think of her?" minute, as Margery embraces Isirs. Billy while they alt at the window of the room the latter so melt admires; then, "1 love you," says Margery, simply, a little tremor MEI her 'raise. " Thst's all right. Quite right. That is jlsst as it should be," sweetly. And now we ase real sisters without any law about it." " And we—we thought we should have to Itewe the Manor," beegine Margery, a little guilty, full confession on the tip of her dengue, but Mrs. Billy will not listen. Rubbish" she cried gayly, " as if this dear old shed isn't big enough to hold a rtarrison ! Why, if we do come to logger- head or apitclt battle there's plenty of roost (herein which to light it out ;that's one cam - gore Why so serious, Meg ?" " I was thinking May's thoughts. How welt it is for us that you married Billy I" Her eyes are full of tears. " And doubly well for me. By the bye, there is one of you I seem to hear very lit- tle about—Lady Branksmere, Muriel." Margery getting up from the crazy old seat goes -somewhat abruptly to the window. We don't as a rule talk much of =oh other," she says after a slight pause. " Well do you know I think you do, a considerable lot at times," returns Mrs. Billy with a quaint candor. " But of ber—never 1 I knew her marriage was a surprise to you all, because Billy was so taken aback by tt. We heard of it when an our tour. But why? That is what I want to know. Tell me about it." "About it?" Miss Daryl, colors faintly, ilesitatee and looks confused. "About what?" "Look here," says Mrs, Billy, geod- naturedly, "Lf it is anything that requires you to think before answering, of what will .gond well, don't mind it at all. I would :lar rather you didn't answer me.: "Yet, I should like to speak to you ot Ben It would be a relief—a comfort," ex- claims Margery, eagerly, "though, indeed, fihardly know what it is I want to say. You are one of ue now—her sister as much as mine --why then should I be silent about iter? lJy manner,"impatiently, "is aimed. one would thiole by it there was some toys. eery in the background, but in reality there es nothing." "Things often look like that." " It was all terribly sudden, terribly un- expected. The marriage with Branksmere, I.rseen. She had always avoided hint, as I' thought—had—had, in fact"— with a 3ittie resit—" given us the idea that she =ether disliked hint than otherwise, so that when one morning she carte into the s=hoo room and said in her pretty, slow, indiffer eat way that she was going to marry him in a month, we were all en thunderstruck that I don't believe one of ns opened our lips." Awise precaution." "I'm not so sure of that. I doubt our ellenee offended her. 'lour congratulations are warm,' she said, with that queer little laugh of hers you will come to understand time. It was creel of us, but the were all so taken aback," " It was startling, of course, Tell me,' looping toward Margery, and speaking eery clearly, " was the other fellow desir able ?" The—the other 1—" " Why, naturally, my dear child. It would be altogether out of the possibilities mot to think ot him. When a woman gets engaged and married, all in one second, es et were, to a man whom she appeared to dislike very cordially, the mind as a rule is dive to the knowledge that there is another man hidden away eoniewhere." "Lknow so little, I imagine so much," says Margery, with quick distress, "that eram half afraid to speak. But I always thought, until she declared her engagement to Lord Branksmere, that she liked some one—a great oontrast to Branksmere—who lead been staytng down here with some :friends of ours for several months in the autumn. Whether he and she quarreled,or whether she threw him over, or whether Be tired, I know nothing." "Pity I wasn't there just then. I'd have Oren through it all in the twinkling of an eye," declared Mrs. Billy, naively. "Muriel is difficult, you must under atand. One can not react her, quite. Yet I did fancy she was in love with Captain PPtaioes." "Staines, Staines?" "That was his name. He was staying with the Mounts, who lite two or three miles from this. Know him ?" "It is quite a usual name, no doubt,' says Mrs. Daryl, in a tone that might ;almost suggest the idea that she has oeeovered herself. " Yet it gave to me a tears of thought. Know him ? Well—one can't be sure. Short, little man. lbh 1" " Oh, no. Tall, very tall." "Stout ?" " Meager, if anything. A handaome bgure,. I suppose," doubtfully, " but too much of the hair -pin order to snit me. But, at all events, I kuow he mould lay claim to be called distinguished -looking." " Most dark men look distinguished." "He isn't dark. Fair if anything," "Fair, and tall, and slender. Ah I he same; be the man I mean," said Mrs. Billy, oaowly. Then, " When do you expect Lady Branksmere home ?" "To the castle, you mean ? I don't know. She has never, during all her wedding -trip, written so much as a post•oard to one of us. Attie isn't it?" uggestive, at least." " Of what ? Happiness ?" " Let us hope ao. But what a long time lo maintain a settled silence." " Too long. She is Doming home, we !hear—through the Branksmere steward." " When 1" " Any day—any hour, in fact. They have received word to have the castle in order to receive the new Lady Branksmere at a Moment's notice," "I see," says Mrs. Daryl, thoughtfully. She had walked to the window a few min - rates ago, and is now staring out into the shrubberies thee guard the garden paths, Presently her gaze grows concentrated upon one spot. • " Margery, come here I" she says, in a low . tone. " Within the last minute or two I lave become aware that there le a strange man in the garden! He is gazing about him in a moat enspieions manner. What can he want? tee 1 there he is. Ah ! now you've lost him again, He appears to me to keep most artfully behind the hushes. Can ho be a, burglar taking the bearings of the loam with intent to rob and murder no all in our beds?" Margery, coming nearer, peers excitedly over her shotilde.r at the suemoions•looking person in question. As she does her f e, Spews lint, The bushes may hide hie in- . divicleatity from ast.t,age, bit to her tsett ,rtclt un;nan, "l: this the ogress ?the tyratit thetee' ''Certainly I '17tis is elr. Bellew, a very ohI ft1011,1 of mets," saga Margery, its the tea 't ens. uhu evidently demurs the Mr. Bellew in question of nu ata,unnt whetao- 1. Se glad to meet you, 11r, Mellow," lays Mr. rho yl, with the sweetest smile. "Mate gery tells me you are gait° all old friend with all here, so I hope by and by we, you end 1, shall be friends too." Where is the ogress in all this? Dir, Bellew teens his heart go out to this pretty, smiling, gracious little thing upon the graveled path. " You are very good," he stammers, Met- ing still somewhat insecure, the revulsion of feeling being examine. " hilly was out then ? I tun so sorry, One of the servants told me on nay way here that you wished to see hint. Never mind. Perhaps—what do you think, Margery? Perhaps your friend, Mr. Bellew, will dine frith us without ceremony to -morrow oven- ing ?" The two words "your friend" does it, From that moment Curzon Bellow is her Owe. Margery murmurs something civil, and presently Mra. Daryl, with another honeyed word or two, disappears between the branches. " \i"ell?" says Meg. \i -ell?" "Site isn't quite the ogress you imagined, est?" "\Vhy, it wee you who used to call her chat," exclaims Curzon, with some righteous wroth. "And now you try 1,0 put it upon nee. Itis the most unfair• thong I ever heard of. You have forgotten, you Meow." Unfair ?" "Yes. You said you were miserable at the thought of having to live with an tempered—" "That's right. Put it all triton me by all means. I'm only a woman. I11 -tempered 1 Why, she is. west. How can you so malign her?" "A voice Domes to them through the twilight : "Margery 1 Margery Date 1 Where are yon ? Coote in. The dew is falling." Miss Daryl makes a step towards the house. "Oh, Meg, to leave me without ono kind word after three weeks. How oat you ?" cries Bellew, in a subdued tone that is full of grief. • Well, there," says Meg, extending to him Iter little slender, white hand, with all time haughty graciousness of a queen. " IE I come co dinner to -morrow night, you will be glad?" "Glad? It won't put me out in the least, if you mean that," says Miss Daryl, slipping from him through the dewy branches. " Her? You should speak more respect- fully of such a dragon as she has proved herself, if, Indeed, you mean Mrs. :Daryl. But why asst me for a photograph? She will be here In a moment to—" " Yes, yes, I know," hastily. " That is why 1 want to be prepared. What is she " like, eh ? All the rest of the world. She has a nose, two eyes, end a mouth—quits ordin- ary. Disappointing, isn't it ?" ' Then she isn't— "No, she isn't t" saucily. " What did you expect ? An ogress?" "Why, that was what you expected, says lir. Bellew, very justly incensed. "You said---" HIo be stricken dumb lsy rile sight of a pretty bole plmrpl%ersen watt hal emerged also e ,retit the halal floe:. 1\ t.i!l 01l, t 1 x0,a n y tan : Ai,oat tw 1:0 an to Leel j;,ewcr is rt,lobed to t ,a.:.g friendly wit:e et tile Jiyc,te• stop au =pre= tr.:l:it as to start oho. YOUNG FOLKS. Three Little Dollar 1 hair Ihrre ittto ,lull -in illy play -room Annie, suet Penny. and \l,1;', And one f- wit ty+maluu.i„pretty, And one 1a a u thes .dl day, And some people w enlan I believe it, And nines wunhl think 11 Veer. Bat the third 1a 01y' pet and my darling, Naughty, but. dearest acne. And over and over I hie: her, And over and over 1 say, I never could epee the dolly', Who 190= naughty all say. MAUD'S J1,EMINDER. 11,11 n Il IEr waNit tl , t}.'t. tv'et y hr-• heel toe FMB HOLLER LIFE, h Iit tilLOgets utg lea. owe ilitrttien sol _-- :.[ rl w•• on wine. Ani hew' site used til' doe blt✓"clns fleet II=owls se Itranetsstoes•. epee,' 111T,, 1111,:ring 1158 l-eetna eelu,u 1 w'03 \Veil, well l's jiot n -say d110 te• Tilly 1a»t huh, awl stM,t t strong enough to go to school all bit time? Some, mothers: couldn't have thought they 80111a g tare to 110,111115 01 hours a clay to hear' a cinlcl recite, but oho ddd, Anel here 1 am, letting her do every- thing now ! What sort of a Cimristien have 1 been? A person who didn't even profess to be a ehureh•ntember might have been better." The next morning Mrs, Crowell awoke with a kind of inellet!not feeling that she had heard some one go softly down stair; a while before. But site thought elle meat have been mistaken. " It eau's be time for Harry to be up yet," she thought as she hurriedly made ready to go down to her usual work. It seemed to her she was tired to begin with. She was always tired. There was so much to be done. But when she mulled the kitchen, she was half startled. Metal stood there turn- ing hot water into the aoffee•pot. There was a fire. The table in the next room was set for the breakfast that was alinoat Book- ed. ' Why, Maud 1" exclaimed her mother. "Iia up early for once," returned Maud quietly. But it was not till after two or three days of such helping that Mrs. Crowell realized what happened. One morning Maud took the broom and the earpet-sweeper out of her mother's hands, and insisted oil doing the day's sweeping upstairs, Mrs. Crowell went away by herself into the parlor, and listened to .\laud's steps es the girl wentup•stairs. Her mother's eyes filled with tears. It seems so good to have a helper. ' Olt," almost sobbed the mother to her- self, " I knew Nlaud oared! I do believe she has thought, at lust e' " Olt," exclaimed Maud impatianty, " I wish mother wouldn't! \Vhy can't aloe let things alone?" Out of the window she had caught sight of her mother working in a flower -bee which an intruding mass of periwinkle with its multitude of rooting, progressing, runners threatened to occupy to the exclusion of the rightful plauts. 11 1'd sooner let that old flower -bed go than work out there," thought Maud, I wonder if it's necessary for too to go and help her? I dolt want to one bit ! Car- dentng 15 snub a bother," She turned away from tete window. "I don't believe I will," site concluded, "I want to read that paper Uncle Frank sent, with all those pictures in it of the fireworks at the soldiers reunion. There's ever so much historical information in that paper, too. One ought to know about the history of one's country." And Maud settled herself on the lounge and read her paper. Out side m the warm sun her mother worked. She had hurried through her in. door tasks in order to have some time to spend in the garden, for she had been afraid that the ever advancing periwinkle would root out some plants that she did not want to loose. But she wee tired, and the peri. winkle's interlaoing rootless seemed like shoestrings, the knots of which she mould never get rid of. She pulled and hoed, and still more weeds and periwinkle confronted her. I'm so tired," she said to herself. No wonder ane was tired. She had work- ed enough. She had hurried clown stairs before six that morning to be stare to get breakfast ready for Iter son who had to catch the train to the city. It would never do for hien to be late at the store. And as for Maud's doing such a think as running down stairs and lighting the fire, and get• Ong her brother's coffee and graham gems, and eggs ready, Maud's mother would have been astonished if such a thing had occurred. Maud was strong and well, but she was not much help to her mother. And yet Maud accounted herself a Christian. After seeing her boy off, Mrs. Crowell had put Maud's breakfast where it world be warm when she should come down. Her mother washed dishes and heated some water for some flannels that must be wash- ed, too, Mrs. Crowell swept and dusted, and made beds, and burned through the moat of the usual household work in order that she might have time that forenoon for the extra outdoor toil. Her boy was in the store day and evening, and had no time to help about gardening. Neither could Mrs. Orowetl afford to hire some one every time there was something in the garden that ought to be done, And Mend never seemed to think site could help. Some way, ever since she came home it had been so. When she had been attending the seminary she could not have done much but stndy,and her mobher toiled bravely, ready to work be. yond her strength if Maud might' have an education. But now that Maud had gradu- ated and come home, was she ttngratefnl for all the patient days of toil her mother had borne? ' She used to help me when she was a little girl," murmured Mrs. Crowell to her- self as she hoed at the periwinkle. " When she was a little thing, she'd .always want to hand me the clothes -pins wash -days, ' to help mamma.'" Mrs. Crowelll's lips trembled. Some way, the recolleetion of the time when it had been baby Maud's highest ambition to "help mamma " overcame her soother just now. A tear dropped on the periwinkle. Mrs. Crowell brushed her eyes. It was not tete work, so much as it was Maud's seeming lack ot sympathy and apprecietion of the work, that hurt her mother. "Maud means all right," Kira. Crowell thought now as she worked, "She cares just as much for mother, I guess, as she used to, only she doesn't think. And I can't bear to say anything to her. Oh ! It must be time I went and got the potatoes ready." And site went in to attend to the work. That afternoon \laud went out to make some calls, and on her way she met a wom- an, a friend, who had recently lost her mother, a very aged lady. Maud stopped to speak to her friend, and all the woman could talk of was her bereavement. She went over again to Maud the story of how the old lady died. "But, ole, I haven'b any mother any more l" exclaimed the woman, her face quiv- ering. Maud looked at the gray-haired woman, and almost realized a little of what she felt, Ihaven't any mother any more I" repeat. ed the grieved woman, "I thought if I did ell Icould to make mother's last years com- fortable and happy and didn't let her do a bit of work more than ehe wanted to, may- be I'd have her a good many years yet. But she's gone and it seems so lonesome, it seems as if I couldn't bear to go into our house," and the woman wiped her eyes, in unaffected grief. "It's too bad," responded Maud, hardly knowing how to express hersympathy. "lent real sorry." "Good-bye" seed the woman sorrowfully as she =nail away, drawing her black shawl closer about her shoulders. Hand's fame grew more and more sober as site walk- ed on alone. Site was thinking about the words ehe had Nee heard, and her thoughts turned to her own mother, how much that mother was to her. The words the woman had just said about not letting her own mother do "a bit of work more than she wanted to," gave Maud's oonsoience an uncomfortable feel- ing, She had not meant to be so careless. She did many oharitable things, and be. longed to several sooteties, and she did not like housework. Had she neglected her mother ? "1 haven any mother any more ?" A quivering feeling cavo in Maud's throat. Supposing she should ever have to say that I Maud's memory awoke. " When I was going to school," sato thought, fe mother worked and wonted ab home, sweeping, and cooking, andwashing paint and windows, and ironing, and (doing everything,. and she MB so tired at night, and yet I couldn't spare time from my les - eons to help get supper, end she'd tell me to peep at my books, and she'd wash dishes, and everything. Some mothers would have thought tlsey needed me too much at honto tn let 0,:e keep on going to the seminary, The day has waned ; night—a dark, damp, spring night—has fallen upon the earth. There is an extreme closeness in the air that speaks of a coming storm, The shadow of a starless night ie thrown over the world that lies sleeping uneasily beneath its weight, and from the small rivers in the distance cones time sound of rushing, that goes before the swelling of the flocds. Storm and rain, and passionate wind, may be predicted for the coming morn. DInner long since has comp to an end ; it is now close= ten o'clock. Margery and Mrs. Daryl are sitting together in the li- brary, before a blazing; fire•—rather silent, rather depressed in spite of themselves—a little imbued unconsciously by the electric fluid with which the air seems charged. The windows leading on to the balcony are thrown wide open. The fire has been lighted as usual, but the eight is almost suffocating, so dense and heavy is the still, hot atmosphere with- out. "One feels uncanny, somehow, as if strange things were about," says Mrs. Billy presently, with a rather nervous little laugh. 'I can't bear lightning, can you ? And there is sure to be plenty of it before the morning. What a weird night. Look how dark it is without. Ah ! what is that "What ?" cries Margery in turn, spring- ing to her feet. There is a sound of light, ghostly footsteps on the balcony beyond, and from the sullen mist a tall figure emerges clothed from head to heel in som- ber garments. It comes quickly toward them through the open window, the face hidden by a black hood, until almost with- in a yard or two of then. Then it Domes to an abrupt stand -still and flings back the covering from its face. (eo nt;vooesxrloo ) Additions to the British Navy. The Admiralty have now definitely de. aided to strengthen the British Navy Root reserve. Within the next twelve months a large number of new ships are to be con- structed, and passed into the reserve as ready for sea. Foremost amongst these are flue first-class battleships of tete Royal Sovereign type, and representing the largest plass of vessel in the world, Their names are the Empress of India, Repulse, Ransil. Iles, Resolution, and Royal Oak, eaoh hav- ing aving a displacement of 14,150 tone, with engines of 11,000 horse -power, and a speed of 17.5 knots, with an armament consisting of four 13.5 breeahloading guns, ton Rin and twentyeight smaller quick -firing guns, and a number of machine guns and torpedo tubes. There will also be two firOt•ciass battleships, the Centurion and Bartieur, each having a displacement of 10,500 tons, with engines capable of developing 13,000 horsepower, and giving a speed of 15.95 knots ; besides six first-class protected cruisers—the Creaoent, Endyeoion, St. George, Gibraltar, Grafton, and Theseue, of 12,200 horsepower each, giving a speed °fewer 10 knots ; three soco taclass pro- tected oruisers—the Aetroe, Bonaventure, and Cambrian—of 0000 horse -power each, and a speed of 10.5 knots ; and ten fleet -plass torpedo gunboats—the Antelope, Dryad, Hazard, Hebe, Leda, Onyx, Renard, Speedy, Jaseur, and Niger. The Speedy will have engines capable of developing 4500 horse- power, and giving a speed of 20,`05 knots ; The engines of the others will develop 8500 horsepower, and give a speed of 10.25 knots. All the cruisers and gunboate, like the battleships, will be powerfully armed with modern weapons. A Society l4otber• Nurse—" Excuse ate, Medam, but little Mabel insisted on seeing you and 3 have taken the liberty to bring her in, ' Madam —" What do you wish, Mabel?" Mabel—" Won't mamma please let Mabel come sit on her lap a little while ?" bfadant—" Why, what are you thinking oft It was only last week 1 granted you that privilege and it will never do for ;no to become too indulgent." mamma wonmamma please kiss M abet ?" Madam--" Nurse will do that for m a. /limn. mat run along new ! You nn els not inter. le re with my Del.,arto$tudiett." night at a 1my never kscwo WI at ;.;:cin' • sdta tern clot l'or- doe ! 1001''S ntln jist ae well r, If it had btu y io or ley Ilse host time I open him. I took my smwin' au' trent over to atav all day'tlt Alice Ann —yen Ituew ,lee are tne'e second cousins. I ]taint no stand to go to folk's homes nit' then go 'way an' commence talking about 'em, specially 'hoot a neighbour, but I jilt can't help but say 'at Joe Higgins was the worst sieve fur 1114 faintly 'at I over seen or 'at ever nnybndy seen. I never's there fn my life when dues there 'et wasn't : " Pa, do this," or " Pa, do that." A -poo my word Idon't see how he put up with it an long as he del. I dealer's to goodnese I don't. Thinks I really a time when I'd be over there', thinks I: "Alin:Ann Higgins, you're a killitt' your ratan by inches an' don't ro lize it an' never will ro'lize it I reckon till he's dead an' gone." Well, as I's a =yin', the last time Pe there pared tome like the man hadn't been in the house a minute till they hod twenty things fur hien to do. I hadn't more an' took my things off till he come in a lookin' awful broke clown alt' out o' 'mural thought, fur Joe w•aan't overly stout at best. He brightened up a bit when he seen me, sit' eked just like he atlas does how I's a con. in' on, au' if Tilrly an' the youngena wuz es well as common. Joe wuz never mach of a talker, but a body coald alma tell whether he's glad to seen ens' er not, fur he had Rich kind ways about him, Alice Ann wuz in the kitchen a gettin' dinner, an' I jilt com- menced askin' inn how he's gettin' along in the grocery store, when she hollers in : "Pa, you'll hat to go back up to the store an' gib me some sody, I'm plum out." " All right, tea," says he' a-pickin' up his hat 'thous a word when there set Billie a -read - in' some sort of a red -beaked book an' alabeline =muslin' her bangs. One o"em could o' gone jiet as easy as not but they never offered to move. 'Maks 1, " I'll bet a hundred dollars if you's my youngens you'd not set around an' make a packhorse out n your pap." I'll tell you right now, youngens hat= much to blame, fur it's jiet (win' mostly to the way they're been raised how they turn 0551, but as 1.'e a goin' a say Joe hadn't more'n got back 011 Alice A nu commonced again. " Pa, this here coffee -mill won't worts and I can't get along till it's fixed. I wish you'd see what ails the pump, too, while you're about it, fur I'm obleged to draw water half tits time. You'll hav to get No a bucket full now, fur Billie can't peek it without apilliu' it all over everything." An' if yoell believe me, just as Joe camp in with a bucket full elle spilt some bilin' gravy on her arm, an' if she didn't pitch 051 to him fur that I hain't here. " Yes, theta fist the way," say she, as mad as a hornet, this plaged old cools stove's enough to agg a body's life out. There hain't another woman in a hundred 'kaput up with it, not one, an' I llamaa-gointo put up with it nmueh longer myself, I kin tell you." " Why, ma," says ,hoe, alookin' nervous, " I've been tryin' to get you to buy an- other'n fur I don't know how lona," " 0, yes," says she, "we've got so much money to fitly 'em with, hain't we. That's just like a man. You know very well I thought we didn't have the stoney to spare. Here's lobelin a-needin' anew dress an' ehoea an' a summer hat an' goodness knows what, so I'd like to know where the stove's a•comin' tire to another seat, He had taken an ob. from. I wish 1' ever see the time when 1 stinate dislike to Sarah's choice, based, it could have things like other folks 's got was hinted, on cent= jealousy, and this was 'eni, says she a-comin' over to me to tie his opportunity to show ht. The etnbarrass- wont of the devoted pair was increased by the significant glanoos of the younger mem- bers of the congregation; but it was of brief duration, being effectually relieved by Ponto himself. When the organ voluntary (one of Men. delssohn's Bongs, without words) began, he arose on Isis hind legs, placed his forepaws on the back of the pew and resting his nose How Ponto Went to Ohuxoh• It was laughingly said in Uncle Jerry's family that Ponto was'; pious dog, for he always followed the carryall to churob, anti lingered to return home with his friends after service. This was considered a rather decorous trait in the dog, and even Deacon Jerry was known to crack a mild joke on Ponto'e regularity in "assembling himself together" on Sunday mornie5. But one bright Sabbath, when the apple trees were in blossom, and the factory girls had donned their new straw bonnets, and all the more fortunate boys were looking so spruce in their fresh spring suits that it was a pleasure= well as a duty to present them- selves at the quaint village church, Polito resolved to be nolooger a doorkeeper and accordingly he sidled up the aisle after his mistress and followed her into the pew. When he showed no disposition to regard her ]mint to go out as he came in, the timid lady conoluded to let him be where he was, hoping against hope that he would disturb no one. Uncle Jerry owned two pews, and Porto might, during good behavior, be al- lowed to spread himself in one of them, leisdemeanorwas reveceutial enough for a terve, but when the immemorial seamstress of the family appeared at the door of the peso, escorted by a suitor from a distance, who was hospitably entertained at the dea- con's house in view of the fact that Ice was a man of substance and a class -leader withal, Ponto challenged the latter with a few gruff notes that decided time worthy couple to re. her arm un. ' 0,1, th'nk you're agittin' along real well, Alit e Alm" Bays I, feelin' that sorry furJoe 1 could a -cried. " 0, yea," says she, a-drawin' her face down like lots o' wimmin folks does some times a-tryisi' to look awful pious when the old feller's jai,rampant inside of'em. " 0, yea," she says, "we git along well enough, but nobody knows how I work an' on them, sent forth aseriesofpenitenialhowls save an' worry to keep things up an the thatmusthave came from the innmetrecesses children a-lookin' decent." I didn't say of his dog soul. All the lapses of Ilia mature nothin', but I's a doing a site o' thinkiu,' life, all the forgotten peaoadillos of his youth the very vagaries of his puppyhood, passed before him in fearful array. That lace bon- net of Abby's that 11e shook to pieces : that melodeon cover that lee chewed upend hid in the currant bushes ; that kitten that Ise kept trembling in the top of the pear -tree all one morning.—elfixri•ere :— His mistress at the first utterance of his confession, strove to divert his mind from the painful subject by inviting him out into the sunshine and free air, but not an inoh would he budge till he made a clean breast of ib, and ruined Mtsa Somktn's beautiful voluntary in the process. Then, with the assistance of his young master, just arrived at the dignity of a cane and tail coat, he was led out into the aisle, but instead of turning toward the door of egress, he made for the pulpit, which he in- vaded with a bound, and quitted with equal preoipitancy en the other aide, Before any one had the presence of mind to open the east door for him, around he Dame into the deacon's aisle again, and by that time his pursuers had crossed in front of the pews to the other side. Two or three turns like bltia for that mod- est dame, the deacon's wife, and that sensi- tive young man, the deacon's son, in the face of a oongregatioa at once tittering and awe- struck, constituted an experience to be remembered for a lifetime. " Olt, I can laugh now," said the deacon's wife, in recalling the incident, "bat I thought I should die then." A fortunate doubling on the intruder, an open door, a waving tall, abrandished cane, and then a sudden exit of two of the actors left the exhausted matron free to drop into a rear pow and collect her thoughts as best she might. That new rattan cane was never seen therefter, and there were those who believed that Ponto had a taste of its quality that embittered his eccleetastical views to the end of his life. Alter the service Deacon Jerry said: "Boys, you must tie Ponto up next Sunday an I'low Joe wuz too. We set down to table then, an' o' course Joe had to hold the: baby till Aline Ann poured out the coffee an' he shuck the sly brush the whole levin' time we's a-eetin', end got up hissetf to cut some more bread ; when Alice Ann passed the chicken she give me an' herself an' the youngens all the good pieces an' left the neck an back fur Joe. T seen he hardly tacked it an' I declare if it wasn't jilt that o' way 'th ever blessed thing about the house. The youngens first, Alice Ansi next, and then pore Joe got the leaven's, if there wuz any. I like to see a woman see after her chil- dren an' do far'em,but I think her man utter be first ever time. A-pon my word I don't believe Joe Higgins' had a decent dud to his bank fur years. Ever cent they could make an' serape went to them youngens. Mabeline must have this an' that an' to- gether, an' Alice Anti 'd a -moved heaven an' earth to a got 'em fur her. I told Tilrly many a time le wuz a bundle' shame the way's things wuz a goin' on there, an' that. I wouldn't be s'prised if Joe Higgins'd loose his mind. An' I reckon he has, pore silly feller, er he wouldn't a gone an' done thio. I had a good notion to talk to Alice Ann teat day en' I wish 1 had now ; pore soul, I feel sorry fur her, an' I feel sorry fur ,Tee, too ; I feel sorry fur all o"em. That day I's there Alice Ann fettered him to the door an' told him a whole string o' stuff an' things to do. "Now, Joe," says she, "whatever you do, don't forgit Mabel- ine's shoes, an' stop in at the milliner's store an' see if her hat's done ; she waren to go to meetin' tonight; an' do think to bring me some sugar an' coffee an' manned fruit an' bakin' powders trom the store, fur I'm lookin' fur Aunt Mollie over to -merry. "Well, ma," says Joe, lookin' =tendered an' gettin' out his led pencil,"I better write 'em down." "0 my moray," says Alice Ann, 'can't you reelect that? Don's forgit the baby's paragoric r.ow, whatever you do fur I don't . want to be kept awake to•nighb with a squallin' young 'en agin', says she, a•aallin' after him when he'd gob plum out mornings 'the gate. "Wall, well," thinks I, "Sal- Stinday morning came but no Ponto was ie Bouders, its ,fist as well you hain'c never got married." Gitlin' married hain't anus what its cracked up to be my pinion. Well, the very next thing I heard wuz 'at Joe Higgins had run off with Pollee Peper- son, an' I haht't a-stdln' In with folks in general that does that a' way, an' I haln'b Odin' in 'th Joe Higgins, but I say now an' I said then that he's stoat driv to do some - thin' cut o' time way. I reckon he 'lows marrien's o failure anyway, pare feller. An Irishman's Clock. to be found. On the arrival of the family at ohurolt there, he was, awaiting them; but he showed no inolination to enter. From that time until the day of his death Ponto never failed to disappear early Sttn• day morning, and to reappear in the church. yard at half•ppase ten, But never again did =cross the tlsreshold of the °hutch door, Not Fatally Injured. First Acquaintance : "Do you know, dear, Mr, Dudoly got a tremendous blow yesterday?" Second Acquaintance: "Indeed, dear me 1 I trust ltie injuries are net snob as aro likely to terminate fatally," Fleet Acquaintance t " Well, no, I don't think it will be so serious as that; the weapon employed was scarcely formidable Mike was one'day taking itis usual wally. when he met his friend Pat, and asked "Pltwat totsue moight it be now?" Pat, having a short atlek he his hand, gave Mike a sharp crock over his heed, and. said: "It's just elttruolt wan," Mike looking up a little surprised, but always Pearly, ;add m " froth, and it'a a enough to do mu,,lt ext el: eon. You see, it lucky job 1 wee:, t iters en hour sooner.: happened in tide w -y : ho wits struck with -gee the idea that I was genic; to ertarry him, kir, ellaclstotte'c rant of spceclt averages and lett not, That's all, leu weeds pee e,3nute.