ed their wages for nearly the whole of their term of
"service." Bessie is happy in the possession of two fine boys, to
whom all her attention--all save a little reserved for Thaddeus--is
given; and, as for the dubious, auburn-haired, and distinctly Celtic
Norah, Thaddeus is afraid that she is developing into a "treasure."

"Why do you think so?" Bessie asked him, when he first expressed
that fear.

"Oh, she has the symptoms," returned Thaddeus. "She has taken three
nights off this week."

MR. BRADLEY'S JEWEL

Thaddeus was tired, and, therefore, Thaddeus was grumpy. One
premise only was necessary for the conclusion--in fact, it was the
only premise upon which a conclusion involving Thaddeus's grumpiness
could find a foothold. If Thaddeus felt rested, everything in the
world could go wrong and he would smile as sweetly as ever; but with
the slightest trace of weariness in his system the smile would fade,
wrinkles would gather on his forehead, and grumpiness set in whether
things were right or wrong. On this special occasion to which I
refer, things were just wrong enough to give him a decent excuse--
outside of his weariness--for his irritation. Norah, the housemaid,
had officiously undertaken to cover up the shortcomings of John, who
should have blacked Thaddeus's boots, and who had taken his day off
without preparing the extra pair which the lord of the manor had
expected to wear that evening. It was nice of the housemaid, of
course, to try to black the extra pair to keep John out of trouble,
but she might have been more discriminating. It was not necessary
for her to polish, until they shone like Claude Lorraine glasses,
two right boots, one of which, paradoxical as it may seem, was
consequently the wrong boot; so that when Thaddeus came to dress for
the evening's diversion there was nowhere to be found in his shoe-
box a bit of leathern gear in which his left foot might appear in
polite society to advantage. Possibly Thaddeus might have endured
the pain of a right boot on a left foot, had not Norah unfortunately
chosen for that member a box-toed boot, while for the right she had
selected one with a very decided acute angle at its toe-end.

"Just like a woman!" ejaculated Thaddeus, angrily.

"Yes," returned Bessie, missing Thaddeus's point slightly. "It was
very thoughtful of Norah to look after John's work, knowing how
important it was to you."

Fortunately Thaddeus was out of breath trying