ou are a better housekeeper than I thought you were.

THE COLONEL: I beg your pardon?

TISH (magnanimously): You may not know much about dishcloths, but you
are right about flags. They do fade, and I dare say dew is about as bad
as rain for them.

He seemed very much gratified by her approval, and said in twenty-five
years in the Army he had never failed to have the flag brought in at
night. "I may fail in other things," he said wistfully. "To err is
human, you know. But the flag proposition is one I stand pat on."

It was after our return visit to the camp that the real change in Tish
began. We had gone to our cottage in Lake Penzance for the summer, and
Tish suggested that we study French there. She had an excellent French
book, with photographs in it showing where to place the tongue and how
to pucker the lips for certain sounds. At first she did not allow us to
do anything but practice these facial expressions, and I remember
finding Hannah in the kitchen one night crying into her bread sponge and
asking her what the trouble was.

"I just can't bear it, Miss Lizzie," she said; "when I look in and see
the three of you sitting there making faces I nearly go crazy. I've got
so I do it myself, and the milkman won't leave the bottles no nearer
than the gate."

After some days of silent practice Tish considered that we could advance
a lesson, and we began with syllable sounds, thus:

_Ba_--Said with tip of tongue against lower teeth.

_Be_--Show two upper middle teeth.

_Bi_--Broad smile.

_Bu_--Whistle.

_Bon_--Pout.

It was an excellent method, though we all found difficulty in showing
only two upper middle teeth.

There were also syllables which called for hollow cheeks, and I remember
Tish's irritation at my failure.

"If you would eat less whipped cream, Lizzie," she said scathingly, "you
might learn the French language. Otherwise you might as well give it
up."

"I dare say there are plump people among the French," I retorted. "And I
never heard that a Frenchwoman who put on twenty pounds or so went dumb.
That woman who trims your hats isn't dumb so you could notice it. I'd
thank my stars if she was. She can say forty dollars fast enough, and
she doesn't suck in her cheeks either!"

In the end Aggie and I gave up the French lessons, but Tish kept them
up. She learned ten nouns a day, and she made an attempt at verbs, but
gave it up.

"I can secure anything I want, if I ever visit our valiant Al