es, Oliver."

"Oh, nice enough as babies go. The boy's a trump. He'd be a man already
if his mother would let him. But babies ought to have their season like
everything else under the sun. For God's sake, Susan, talk to me about
something else!" he added in mock despair.

Virginia was already in the house, and when Oliver and Susan joined her,
they found Mrs. Pendleton trying to persuade her to let Marthy carry the
sleeping Jenny up to the nursery.

"Give me that child, Jinny," said Oliver, a trifle sharply. "You know
the doctor told you not to carry her upstairs."

"But I'm sure it won't hurt me," she responded, with an angelic
sweetness of voice. "It will wake her to be changed, and the poor
little thing has had such a trying day."

"Well, you aren't going to carry her, if she wakes twenty times,"
retorted Oliver. "Here, Marthy, if she thinks I'd drop her, suppose you
try it."

"Why, bless you, sir, I can take her so she won't know it," returned
Marthy reassuringly, and coming forward, she proved her ability by
sliding the unconscious child from Virginia's arms into her own.

"Where is Harry?" asked Mrs. Pendleton anxiously. "Nobody has seen Harry
since we got here."

"I is, ma'am," replied the cheerful Marthy over her shoulder, as she
toiled up the stairs, with Virginia and little Lucy noiselessly
following. "I've undressed him and I was obliged to hide his clothes to
keep him from putting 'em on again. He's near daft with excitement."

"Perhaps I'd better go up and help get them to bed," said Mrs.
Pendleton, turning from the rector to Oliver. "I'm afraid Jinny will be
too tired to enjoy her supper. Harry is in such a gale of spirits I can
hear him talking."

"You might as well, my dear," rejoined the rector mildly, as he stooped
over to replace one of the baby's bottles in the basket from which it
had slipped. "Don't you think we might get some of these things out of
the way?" he added. "If you take that alcohol stove, Oliver, I'll follow
with these caps and shawls."

"Certainly, sir," rejoined Oliver readily. He always addressed the
rector as "sir," partly because it seemed to him to be appropriate,
partly because he knew that the older man expected him to do so. It was
one of Oliver's most engaging characteristics that he usually adapted
himself with perfect ease to whatever life or other people expected of
him.

While they were carrying the baskets into the passage at the back of the
dining-room,