tle, with
the most unruffled and exemplary patience. The self-control which he
thus exhibited did not pass without its reward. Zack got tired of making
jokes which were received with the serenest inattention; and, passing at
once from the fanciful to the practical, astonished his fellow-lodger,
by suddenly communicating a very unexpected and very important piece of
news.

"By-the-bye, Mat," he said, "we must sweep the place up, and look as
respectable as we can, before to-morrow night. My friend Blyth is coming
to spend a quiet evening with us. I stayed behind till all the visitors
had gone, on purpose to ask him."

"Do you mean he's coming to have a drop of grog and smoke a pipe along
with us two?" asked Mat rather amazedly.

"I mean he's coming here, certainly; but as for grog and pipes, he never
touches either. He's the best and dearest fellow in the world; but I'm
ashamed to say he's spooney enough to like lemonade and tea. Smoking
would make him sick directly; and, as for grog, I don't believe a drop
ever passes his lips from one year's end to another. A weak head--a
wretchedly weak head for drinking," concluded Zack, tapping his forehead
with an air of bland Bacchanalian superiority.

Mat seemed to have fallen into one of his thoughtful fits again. He made
no answer, but holding the brandy-bottle standing by his side, up before
the candle, looked in to see how much liquor was left in it.

"Don't begin to bother your head about the brandy: you needn't get any
more of it for Blyth," continued Zack, noticing his friend's action.
"I say, do you know that the best thing you ever did in your life was
saving Valentine's picture in that way? You have regularly won his heart
by it. He was suspicious of my making friends with you before; but now
he doesn't seem to think there's a word in the English language that's
good enough for you. He said he should be only too glad to thank you
again, when I asked him to come and judge of what you were really like
in your own lodging. Tell him some of those splendid stories of yours.
I've been terrifying him already with one or two of them at secondhand.
Oh Lord! how hospitably we'll treat him--won't we? You shall make his
hair stand on end, Mat; and I'll drown him in his favorite tea."

"What does he do with them picters of his?" asked Mat. "Sell 'em?"

"Of course!" answered the other, confidently; "and gets enormous sums
of money for them." Whenever Zack found an opportunity o