y could understand each other. Do you suppose the
children had to learn every language?"

Jim gave a great laugh at that.

CHAPTER XIV

JOHN ROBERT CHARLES

The new President was inaugurated on the fourth of March. The little
girl sighed to think how many Democratic people there were on her block.
They put out flags and bunting, and illuminated in the evening. They had
tremendous bonfires, and all the boys waived personal feeling and danced
and whooped like wild Indians. No healthy, well-conditioned boy could
resist the fragrance of a tar barrel.

Miss Lily Ludlow wore a red, white, and blue rosette with a tiny
portrait of Mr. Polk in the centre. The public-school girls often walked
up First Avenue and met Mrs. Craven's little girls going home. Lily used
to stare at Hanny in an insolent manner. She and her sister could not
forgive the fact that Miss Margaret had not called.

And now the talk was that Miss Margaret Underhill had a beau, a handsome
young doctor.

"They do think they're awful grand," said Lily to some of her mates.
"But they take up with that Dele Whitney, who sometimes does the
washing on Saturdays. It's a fact, girls; and the sister works in an
artificial-flower place down in Division Street. And the Underhills
think they're good enough to company with."

But the fact remained that the Underhills kept a carriage, and that Mr.
Stephen had married in the Beekman family, and Chris had heard that Dr.
Hoffman was considered a great catch. She was almost twenty and had
never kept company yet. Young men called at the house, to be sure, and
attended her home from parties, but the most desirable ones seemed
unattainable.

Her mother fretted a little that she didn't get to doing something. Here
were girls earning five or six dollars a week, and her father's wages
were so small it was a pinch all the time.

"I'm sure I make all our dresses and sew for father, and do lots of
housework," replied Chris, half-crying.

There were people even then who considered it more genteel not to work
out of the house. And since servants were not generally kept, a
daughter's assistance was needed in the household.

And to crown the little girl's troubles her dear mayor was retired to
private life and a Democrat ruled in his stead.

But there were the new discoveries to talk about, and the reduction of
postage due to the old administration. Now you could send a letter
three hundred miles for five cents. Hanny