had been intended in the
nature of enquiry, not of assertion.

"Brings me a bottle of gin--for my headaches--every time he comes home,"
continued Susan, showing cause for opinion, "every blessed time."

And at some such point as this I would retire to the clearer atmosphere
of German grammar or mixed fractions.

We suffered a good deal from Susan one way and another; for having
regard to the admirable position of her heart, we all felt it our duty
to overlook mere failings of the flesh--all but my aunt, that is, who
never made any pretence of being a sentimentalist.

"She's a lazy hussy," was the opinion expressed of her one morning by my
aunt, who was rinsing; "a gulping, snorting, lazy hussy, that's what she
is." There was some excuse for my aunt's indignation. It was then eleven
o'clock and Susan was still sleeping off an attack of what she called
"new-ralgy."

"She has seen a good deal of trouble," said my mother, who was wiping.

"And if she was my cook and housemaid," replied my aunt, "she would see
more, the slut!"

"She's not a good servant in many respects," admitted my mother, "but I
think she's good-hearted."

"Oh, drat her heart," was my aunt's retort. "The right place for that
heart of hers is on the doorstep. And that's where I'd put it, and her
and her box alongside it, if I had my way."

The departure of Susan did take place not long afterwards. It occurred
one Saturday night. My mother came upstairs looking pale.

"Luke," she said, "do please run for the doctor."

"What's the matter?" asked my father.

"Susan," gasped my mother, "she's lying on the kitchen floor breathing
in the strangest fashion and quite unable to speak."

"I'll go for Washburn," said my father; "if I am quick I shall catch him
at the dispensary."

Five minutes later my father came back panting, followed by the doctor.
This was a big, black-bearded man; added to which he had the knack of
looking bigger than even he really was. He came down the kitchen stairs
two at a time, shaking the whole house. He brushed my mother aside, and
bent over the unconscious Susan, who was on her back with her mouth wide
open. Then he rose and looked at my father and mother, who were watching
him with troubled faces; and then he opened his mouth, and there came
from it a roar of laughter, the like of which sound I had never heard.

The next moment he had seized a pail half full of water and had flung it
over the woman. She opened her eye