gods
He storeth in his mighty van--
No lurking sting of conscience prods
The happy-hearted moving man.

Upon the pavement in a row,
Beneath the cruel noonday glare,
The things we do not wish to show
He places, and he leaves them there.
There hour by hour will they remain
For all the gaping world to scan,
The while we coax and chide in vain
The careless-hearted moving man.

When darkness finds our poor array
Like drift upon a barren shore,
Perchance we gaze on it and say
With vigor, "We will roam no more."
But when the year its course hath run,
And May completes the rhythmic span,
Again, I wot, we'll call upon
The happy-hearted moving man.

VIII.

_Household Retainers._

It is of Rosa that I would speak now, Rosa, the young and consuming; and
of Wilhelmine, the reformer.

Rosa came first in our affections. It was during our first period of
suburban residence that she became a part of our domestic economy,
though on second thought economy seems hardly the word. She was tall,
and, while you could never have guessed it to look into her winsome,
gentle face, I am sure that she was hollow all the way down.

When I first gazed upon her I wondered why one so young (she was barely
sixteen), and with such delicacy of feature, should have been given feet
so disproportionate in size. I know now that they were mere recesses,
and that it was my fate for the time being to fill, or to try to fill,
them.

She came in the afternoon, and when, after a portion of the roast had
been devoted to the Precious Ones and their forbears, and an allotment
of the pudding had been issued and dallied over, Rosa came on and
literally demolished on a dead run every hope of to-morrow's stew, or
hash, or a "between-meal" for the Precious Ones--licked not only the
platter, but the vegetable dishes, the gravy tureen, the bread board,
and the pudding pan, clean, so to speak.

At first we merely smiled indulgently and said: "Poor thing, she is
half starved, and it is a pleasure to have her enjoy a good meal. She
can't keep it up, of course."

[Illustration: Rosa.]

But this was simply bad judgment. At daybreak I hastened out for a new
invoice of bread stuff and market supplies in order to provide for
immediate wants. Rosa had rested well and was equal to the occasion.
When I returned in the evening I found that our larder had been
replenished and wrecked twice during my