ckly. "He's above standin' behind the bar nowadays."

Amos could well remember when Sillbrook had been only a mill-hand like
himself, earning twelve dollars a week. But he had been a prudent,
saving man always, and had early made up his mind to be rich, no matter
at what cost of conscience and principle. With this end in view he had
purchased a saloon, and cordially invited his former fellow workers at
the mill to patronize him. This they were very willing to do, for
Sillbrook knew how to make his saloon attractive; and he soon had as
much custom as he could well attend to. At length he hired a bar-keeper,
and after a couple of years was never seen behind the bar himself. He
had grown rich very rapidly, and now owned one of the finest houses in
the town, and was able to gratify every taste and whim, while those who
had helped him to his wealth by drinking his liquors were as poor as
ever--many of them poorer.

Amos Derby had been one of Sillbrook's best customers ever since the
saloon had been opened, and as a natural consequence had had little to
spend in comforts for his wife and children. He still lived in the small
cottage he had bought on first moving to the town, and had seen it grow
more and more dilapidated every year without making any attempt to
repair it.

But though the outside was far from attractive, the inside was always
neat and clean, for, whatever her faults of temper, Jane Derby was a
woman who believed thoroughly in abiding by heaven's first law, and who
labored early and late to make both ends meet, something she would not
have been able to accomplish had she not possessed skill as a
dressmaker, for Amos seldom gave her any of his earnings. She was
sitting in the kitchen sewing when her husband came in, and a bitter
expression crossed her face as she saw his condition.

"Drunk, as usual," she said, harshly, "when were you anything else?"

"When you was kinder spoken, perhaps," answered Amos, with spirit. "This
is the sort of welcome I get every night in the week. 'Tain't much
wonder I go to Sillbrook's." He dropped into a chair as he spoke, and
began to pull off his boots.

"If you didn't have one excuse you'd make another," said Jane, flushing,
and bending closer over her sewing. "Perhaps you think I ought to feel
pleasant when you come home in this state. Well! it ain't human nature,
that it ain't! I mind the time you brought home your wages reg'lar,
every Sat'day night, and I was willin' en