Bennie is a year old to-day? I
declare, Ben, we ought to have got him a present for his birthday."

The father looked up from his paper with a good-natured laugh. "Seems to
me he's rather youthful to begin on that tack, isn't he?"

"Oh, Ben, no! I want every one of his birthdays to be so nice and
pleasant. Do, papa, come here and see how nice he looks, with his hair
all in a curl."

Thus appealed to, Mr. Phillips came over to the arm-chair, and together
they stood looking down on the treasured bit of flesh and blood.

"Our eldest born," the mother said, softly.

"And youngest, too, for the matter of that," answered Mr. Phillips,
gaily.

His wife laughed. "Ben, there isn't the least bit of sentiment in you,
is there? Now they are having a wonderful time to-day in the grand
corner house on the Avenue, the Hastings' house, you know, and it's all
because their baby is a year old to-day, and he isn't a bit nicer than
ours."

"Their baby's father is worth a million."

"I don't care if he is worth a billion, that don't make their baby any
sweeter. Say, Ben, I just wish, for the fun of it, we had some little
cunning thing for his birthday present."

Mr. Phillips seemed to be very much amused. "Well," he said, still
laughing, "Which shall it be, a razor or a jack-knife?"

His wife actually shuddered. "Ben!" she said, with a reproachful face,
"how _can_ you say such dreadful things? What if he should grow up and
commit suicide?"

"What if I had a boy, and he should grow to be a man, and another man
should tread on his toes, and he should knock the other man down, and
the other man should die, and they should hang my boy," rattled off Mr.
Phillips in anything but a grave tone.

"Little woman, that's what I should call looking into the future, isn't
it?"

A knock at the door interrupted them, and Roxie, the tidy little maid of
all work, who had been out for an afternoon, appeared to them, talking
rapidly.

"If you please, ma'am, I'm a quarter late, and could you please to
excuse me; the clock around the corner doesn't go, and Kate she didn't
know the time; and Mrs. Meeker said would you please accept her love and
these grapes in a basket. She says they're the finest of the lot, and
you needn't mind sending of it home, 'cause she'll let little Susie step
around after it."

This mixture set Mr. Phillips off into another of his hearty laughs; but
when they were alone again, he seized one of the great purple cluster