e of my bed, with its snowy-white Marseilles
covering, were piled "lots of things," and no mistake. Sugar, tea,
cheese, coffee, soap, and various other articles, not excepting a
bottle of olive oil, from the started cork of which was gently
oozing a slender stream, lay in a jumbled heap; while, on a satin
damask-covered chair, reposed a greasy ham. For a moment I stood
confounded. Then, giving the bell a violent jerk, I awaited, in
angry impatience, the appearance of Anna, who, in due time, after
going to the street door, found her way to my chamber.

"Anna!" I exclaimed, "what, in the name of goodness, possessed you
to do this?"

And I pointed to the bed.

"Sure, and ye towld me till put them on ye's bed."

"I told you no such thing, you stupid creature! I said if a bonnet
came, to put it on the bed."

"Och! sorry a word did ye iver say about a bonnet, mum. It's the
first time I iver heard ony thing about a bonnet from yer blessed
lips. And thot's thrue."

"Where is my bonnet, then? Did one come home?"

"Plase, mum, and there did. And a purty one it is, too, as iver my
two eyes looked upon."

"What did you do with it?" I enquired, with a good deal of concern.

"It's safe in thot great mahogany closet, mum," she replied,
pointing to my wardrobe.

I stepped quickly to the "mahogany closet," and threw open the door.
Alas! for my poor bonnet! It was crushed in between two of Mr.
Smith's coats, and tied to a peg, by the strings, which were, of
course, crumpled to a degree that made them useless.

"Too bad! Too bad!" I murmured, as I disengaged the bonnet from its
unhappy companionship with broadcloth. As it came to the light, my
eyes fell upon two dark spots on the front, the unmistakable prints
of Anna's greasy fingers. This was too much! I tossed it, in a
moment of passion, upon the bed, where, in contact with the "lots of
things," it received its final touch of ruin from a portion of the
oozing contents of the sweet oil bottle.

Of the scene that followed, and of the late, badly-cooked dinner to
which my husband was introduced an hour afterwards, I will not trust
myself to write. I was not, of course, in a very agreeable humor;
and the record of what I said and did, and of how I looked, would be
in no way flattering to my own good opinion of myself, nor prove
particularly edifying to the reader.

I shall never forget Anna's new variety of "whale-barry," nor the
"lots o' things" she deposited on my bed.