rong we have done him.
May God speed our efforts!"

"Amen!" reverently whispered Mrs. Green.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

TIM MALONEY'S PIG.

"OCH, thin, mate, an' yer don't appair to be takin' kindly to yer wark
the morn! Shure, an' I'm rale 'shamed uv ye, afther yer day's
plasurin'," remarked Tim Maloney, a broad-shouldered, good-tempered
looking Irishman, to his fellow-workman, who, with sundry grunts and
ejaculations expressive of discontent with the world in general, and his
own hard-working existence in particular, had just lazily emptied his
hod of bricks at the feet of Tim, who was briskly disposing of them,
with many dexterous pats and turns of his trowel, as he laid them, one
by one, upon the wall he was engaged in building. It was early in the
morning of the day following a public holiday; and, of all the workmen
employed upon the block of houses in course of erection, only Tim
Maloney and John Jarvis had made their appearance, the latter of whom
seemed none the better for the previous day's cessation from toil.

He answered gloomily:

"All very well for the likes of you, Tim Maloney, to be chaffin' a
feller; but I'd like to know if you'd feel fit to kill yerself with work
if you'd been draggin' about the day afore with the missis a scoldin',
and half a dozen brats at yer heels as gave yer no peace, a spendin' of
yer hard-earned money, and seein' nought for it."

Tim picked up a brick, and placed it tenderly in the mortar bed he had
just prepared, then said:

"An' isn't it bacomin' that the wife uv yer bossum and the childer
should share yer holiday, an' hilp yer to spind yer money, me bhoy?"

"I can't say as it isn't," frankly replied John; "but some wives is
different to others; and mine just nags and worrits and gives a feller
no peace of his life, and the children takes after her."

"Shure, an' what does she nag and worrit ye about thin?" asked Tim, with
a twinkle in his eye; but at that moment John shouldered his empty hod
and disappeared.

"The ould sthory, shure an' certin," muttered Tim, and in his honest,
kindly heart, for the hundredth time, revolved many a scheme for helping
and stimulating his fellow-workman to a better life.

The breakfast bell presently rang, and John Jarvis, who lived at a
little distance, threw himself at full length upon some boards,
grumbling at his wife for being late with his breakfast.

"Maybe she's wearied herself wid followin' ye an' ye