ut your name? Could she have been in the back parlor while we
were talking?"

"I believe she was!" Plaisted replied. "But the shad for dinner? Need you
have added that? The valentine was punishment enough!"

Another shout of laughter from Mr. Sherwood, and Gussie's perplexed looks
gave place to an amused smile.

"Dexie planned it herself! Ha! ha! ha! I see it all!" and Mr. Sherwood
roared again. "She marked this out as a day of punishment for you,
Plaisted, and she has carried it out pretty well! Ha! ha! It was she
herself who told me to ask you to dinner, saying she had everything ready
for you, and was going to 'heap coals of fire' on your head because you had
been treating her badly. Ha! ha! Guess you are pretty well scorched, sure
enough!" and he leaned back in his chair and wiped his hot face.

"Yes, she _has_ scorched me! Those verses are burnt into my memory and
repeat themselves in spite of me. But you seemed to have studied up the
whole business of shad-fishing just for the occasion."

"But, on my honor, Plaisted, I was entirely ignorant that my talk was
annoying you. Come to think of it, Dexie herself kept me at it. How she
must have enjoyed it!" and he laughed again. "I thought it strange that
she ordered shad for dinner," said Mrs. Sherwood. "Yet she actually asked
me to scold her before you all if they were not cooked satisfactorily."

"You will not have a chance to call her 'Dexter' again," said Gussie,
"unless you want to be addressed as Shadrach or Shad. Whichever you dislike
the most, you will be sure to get. Now I understand what she meant when she
asked me before dinner if I would praise the shad," and she joined her
father's laugh; it was so contagious.

"Well, I will be compelled to cry quits, sure enough," said Plaisted; "but
I never suspected that she could make such comical verses."

"Oh! that is second-hand poetry, Plaisted. She has been misquoting the
'Widow Bedott' for your benefit," said Mr. Sherwood.

"And who is the 'Widow Bedott'?"

"She is a character in a most amusing book. Let me advise you to take her
as a travelling companion with you to-morrow. After you have read about her
Shadrach, the poetry won't trouble you as being too personal."

A short time later Mr. Plaisted left the house, but his day's experience
still rankled, and he could truthfully say it was the most unpleasant day
he had ever spent. He mentally resolved that should he ever spend another
hour in the society