of
the morning, and as some four thousand rivets are fastened into four
thousand hoops in the course of one day, it will be seen that the matter
was duly considered. The stray spark from a feminine eye had kindled
such a fierce fire in his heart that by the time the six o'clock
whistle blew the conflagration threw a rosy glow over the entire
landscape.

As he rode home, the girl was sitting on the steps, but she would not
look at him. Joe had formulated a definite course of action, and though
the utter boldness of it nearly cost him his balance, he adhered to it
strictly. When just opposite her gate, without turning his head or his
eyes, he lifted his hat, then rode at a furious pace around the corner.

"What you tidying up so fer, Joe?" asked his mother that night; "you
goin' out?"

"No," said Joe evasively, as he endeavoured in vain to coax back the
shine to an old pair of shoes.

"Well, I'm right glad you ain't. Berney and Dick ain't got up the coal,
and there's all them dishes to wash, and the baby she's got a misery in
her year."

"Has paw turned up?" asked Joe.

"Yes," answered Mrs. Ridder indifferently. "He looked in 'bout three
o'clock. He was tolerable full then, and I 'spec he's been took up by
now. He said he was goin' to buy me a bird-cage with a bird in it, but I
surely hope he won't. Them white mice he brought me on his last spree
chewed a hole in Berney's stocking; besides, I never did care much for
birds. Good lands! what are you goin' to wash yer head for?"

Joe was substituting a basin of water for a small girl in the nearest
kitchen chair, and a howl ensued.

"Shut up, Lottie!" admonished Mrs. Ridder, "you ain't any too good to
set on the floor. It's a good thing this is pay-day, Joe, for the rent's
due and four of the children's got their feet on the ground. You paid up
the grocery last week, didn't you!"

Joe nodded a dripping head.

"Well, I'll jes' git yer money out of yer coat while I think about it,"
she went on as she rummaged in his pocket and brought out nine dollars.

"Leave me a quarter," demanded Joe, gasping beneath his soap-suds.

"All right," said Mrs. Ridder accommodatingly; "now that Bob and Ike
are gitting fifty cents a day, it ain't so hard to make out. I'll be
gittin' a new dress first thing, you know."

"I seen one up at the corner!" said Joe.

"A new dress?"

"Naw, a dressmaker. She's got out her sign."

"What's her name?" asked Mrs. Ridder, keen with intere