ewed codfish and the pot of chocolate. As he tucked his napkin
into his enormous collar, McTeague looked vaguely about the room,
rolling his eyes.

During the three years of their married life the McTeagues had made but
few additions to their furniture, Trina declaring that they could not
afford it. The sitting-room could boast of but three new ornaments. Over
the melodeon hung their marriage certificate in a black frame. It was
balanced upon one side by Trina's wedding bouquet under a glass case,
preserved by some fearful unknown process, and upon the other by the
photograph of Trina and the dentist in their wedding finery. This latter
picture was quite an affair, and had been taken immediately after the
wedding, while McTeague's broadcloth was still new, and before Trina's
silks and veil had lost their stiffness. It represented Trina, her veil
thrown back, sitting very straight in a rep armchair, her elbows well
in at her sides, holding her bouquet of cut flowers directly before
her. The dentist stood at her side, one hand on her shoulder, the other
thrust into the breast of his "Prince Albert," his chin in the air, his
eyes to one side, his left foot forward in the attitude of a statue of a
Secretary of State.

"Say, Trina," said McTeague, his mouth full of codfish, "Heise looked in
on me this morning. He says 'What's the matter with a basket picnic over
at Schuetzen Park next Tuesday?' You know the paper-hangers are going
to be in the 'Parlors' all that day, so I'll have a holiday. That's what
made Heise think of it. Heise says he'll get the Ryers to go too. It's
the anniversary of their wedding day. We'll ask Selina to go; she can
meet us on the other side. Come on, let's go, huh, will you?"

Trina still had her mania for family picnics, which had been one of the
Sieppes most cherished customs; but now there were other considerations.

"I don't know as we can afford it this month, Mac," she said, pouring
the chocolate. "I got to pay the gas bill next week, and there's the
papering of your office to be paid for some time."

"I know, I know," answered her husband. "But I got a new patient this
week, had two molars and an upper incisor filled at the very first
sitting, and he's going to bring his children round. He's a barber on
the next block."

"Well you pay half, then," said Trina. "It'll cost three or four dollars
at the very least; and mind, the Heises pay their own fare both ways,
Mac, and everybody gets t