o all that was put before her; and
presently he began, for the first time in his life, to find pleasure in
seeing another person pleased. But the wine she would not even taste,
in spite of persuasion and example; the water from the brook was all she
drank, and she drank as prettily as a pigeon. Whatever she did was done
gracefully and well.

"I am very particular," he said at last; "but you are fit to dine with
anybody. How have you managed to learn it all? You take the best of
everything, without a word about it, as gently as great ladies do. I
thought that you would want me to eat the nicest pieces; but instead of
that, you have left me bones and drumsticks."

He gave such a melancholy look at these that Insie laughed quite
merrily. "I wanted to see you practice chivalry," she said.

"Well, never mind; I shall know another time. Instead of two birds, I
shall order four, and other things in proportion. But now I want to know
about your father and your mother. They must be respectable people, to
judge by you. What is their proper name, and how much have they got to
live upon?"

"More than you--a great deal more than you," she answered, with such a
roguish smile that he forgot his grievances, or began to lose them in
the mist of beauty.

"More than me! And they live in such a hole, where only the crows come
near them?"

"Yes, more than you, Sir. They have their wits to live upon, and
industry, and honesty."

Pet was not old enough yet in the world to say, "What is the use of all
those? All their income is starvation." He was young enough to think
that those who owned them had advantage of him, for he knew that he was
very lazy. Moreover, he had heard of such people getting on--through the
striking power of exception, so much more brilliant than the rule--when
all the blind virtues found luck to lead them. Industry, honesty, and
ability always get on in story-books, and nothing is nicer than to hear
a pretty story. But in some ways Pet was sharp enough.

"Then they never will want that house rent-free, nor the fat pig, nor
any other presents. Oh, Insie, how very much better that will be! I find
it so much nicer always to get thing's than to give them. And people are
so good-natured, when they have done it, and can talk of it. Insie,
they shall give me something when I marry you, and as often as they like
afterward."

"They will give you something you will not like," she answered, with a
laugh, and a look along