er a leetle poipe," as Mrs. Hogan admiringly remarked.

He was hastily prepared for his trip, and when I had arranged the
necessary business matters with his aunt, and had assured her that she
could come to see him whenever she liked, I got into the carriage, and
having spread the lap-robe over my knees, the baby, carefully wrapped in
a little shawl, was laid in my lap. Then his bottle, freshly filled, for
he might need a drink on the way, was tucked between the cushions on the
seat beside me, and taking the lines in my left hand, while I steadied
my charge with the other, I prepared to drive away.

"What's his name?" I asked.

"It's Pat," said his aunt, "afther his dad, who's away in the moines."

"But ye kin call him onything ye bike," Mrs. Duffy remarked, "fer he
don't ansther to his name yit."

"Pat will do very well," I said, as I bade the good women farewell,
and carefully guided the horse through the swarms of youngsters who had
gathered around the carriage.

CHAPTER XX. THE OTHER BABY AT RUDDER GRANGE.

I drove slowly home, and little Pat lay very quiet, looking up steadily
at me with his twinkling blue eyes. For a time, everything went very
well, but happening to look up, I saw in the distance a carriage
approaching. It was an open barouche, and I knew it belonged to a family
of our acquaintance, in the village, and that it usually contained
ladies.

Quick as thought, I rolled up Pat in his shawl and stuffed him under the
seat. Then rearranging the lap-robe over my knees, I drove on, trembling
a little, it is true.

As I supposed, the carriage contained ladies, and I knew them all. The
coachman instinctively drew up, as we approached. We always stopped and
spoke, on such occasions.

They asked me after my wife, apparently surprised to see me alone, and
made a number of pleasant observations, to all of which I replied with
as unconcerned and easy an air as I could assume. The ladies were in
excellent spirits, but in spite of this, there seemed to be an air of
repression about them, which I thought of when I drove on, but could not
account for, for little Pat never moved or whimpered, during the whole
of the interview.

But when I took him again in my lap, and happened to turn, as I arranged
the robe, I saw his bottle sticking up boldly by my side from between
the cushions. Then I did not wonder at the repression.

When I reached home, I drove directly to the barn. Fortunately, Jonas
was ther