to get him a higher employment, he feeling capable of
better things than driving a grocer's wagon. Mr. McSpadden got him an
under-clerkship at a good salary.

Presently William Ferguson's mother fell sick, and William--Well, to
cut the story short, Mr. McSpadden consented to take her into his house.
Before long she yearned for the society of her younger children; so Mary
and Julia were admitted also, and little Jimmy, their brother. Jimmy had
a pocket knife, and he wandered into the drawing-room with it one
day, alone, and reduced ten thousand dollars' worth of furniture to an
indeterminable value in rather less than three-quarters of an hour. A
day or two later he fell down-stairs and broke his neck, and seventeen
of his family's relatives came to the house to attend the funeral. This
made them acquainted, and they kept the kitchen occupied after that, and
likewise kept the McSpaddens busy hunting up situations of various sorts
for them, and hunting up more when they wore these out. The old woman
drank a good deal and swore a good deal; but the grateful McSpaddens
knew it was their duty to reform her, considering what her son had done
for them, so they clave nobly to their generous task. William came
often and got decreasing sums of money, and asked for higher and
more lucrative employments--which the grateful McSpadden more or less
promptly procured for him. McSpadden consented also, after some demur,
to fit William for college; but when the first vacation came and the
hero requested to be sent to Europe for his health, the persecuted
McSpadden rose against the tyrant and revolted. He plainly and squarely
refused. William Ferguson's mother was so astounded that she let her
gin-bottle drop, and her profane lips refused to do their office. When
she recovered she said in a half-gasp, "Is this your gratitude? Where
would your wife and boy be now, but for my son?"

William said, "Is this your gratitude? Did I save your wife's life or
not? Tell me that!"

Seven relations swarmed in from the kitchen and each said, "And this is
his gratitude!"

William's sisters stared, bewildered, and said, "And this is his
grat--" but were interrupted by their mother, who burst into tears and
exclaimed,

"To think that my sainted little Jimmy threw away his life in the
service of such a reptile!"

Then the pluck of the revolutionary McSpadden rose to the occasion, and
he replied with fervor, "Out of my house, the whole beggarly tribe