other, trembling; "indeed you're not."

"Ain't I in a very good humour?" continued my father.

"Yes, you are in the best of humours, and always are so, unless--I
aggravate you," replied my mother, whimpering.

"Well," replied my father, lowering his tail, "I expect we've come to a
right understanding at last. So now get up and wipe your eyes; but
recollect, that whenever you dare to tell me that I'm vexed, I won't be
so ungenteel as to contradict you."

Thus was the mastery gained by my father, and never lost. It is true
that sometimes my mother would forget herself, and would get on as far
as "There now, you're--," but she would stop there, and correct herself,
saying "No, you're not," and allow her temper to evaporate by singing
one of her usual ditties, as "Hush-a-by, baby, on the tree-top;" but my
father never took notice of her singing; and being really a very
good-tempered man, my mother's temper gradually became improved.

The return of my father made some alteration in our mode of life. He
might, if he had pleased, have lived as an out-pensioner with my mother;
but this he would not do. He used to come in almost every evening to
see her, and she used to provide for him a pot of porter, which he
seldom exceeded; if he had friends with him, they paid for what they
drank. This pot of porter _per diem_ was the only demand made upon my
mother for permission to remain separate, and she did not grumble at it.
His tobacco he found himself out of the tobacco money allowed at the
hospital. He had received some pay, which, contrary to his former
custom, he had laid by in the charge of one of the lieutenants of the
hospital, for at that time there were no savings banks.

As a married man my father had the liberty to introduce his wife and
children into the hospital at meal-times, to share his allowance with
them; this my mother would not listen to, as regarded herself and my
sister, but my father messed in what is called the married men's room,
on my account, and instead of buying my own dinner, or applying to my
mother for it, I now always took it with my father in the hospital. In
consequence of my father's admittance as a pensioner, both I and my
sister might have been instructed at the hospital school; but my mother
would not permit Virginia to go there, and I found it much more
convenient to go to Peter Anderson in the evening, when I had nothing to
do. On the whole we all went on much more comfortably tha