word he used before writing
it, to see whether it was on the list or not, but generally it was not,
and that gave him full liberty to spell it in any of the three or four
simplified ways he was used to employing.

Then he turned to his letter to Mary O'Donnell. His buoyancy was
somewhat lessened in this second attempt by the necessity of looking up
each word as he used it, and he was working his way slowly, and had just
told her he was sorry he had "kist" her ("kist" was in the three
hundred), and that it had been because he had "fagot" himself ("fagot"
was in the list also), when a man entered the office and laid a package
on the counter.

Flannery slid from his stool and went to the counter. The man was Mr.
Warold of the Westcote Tag Company, and the package was a bundle of tags
that he wished to send by express. They were properly done up, for Mr.
Warold sent many packages by express. It was addressed to the "Phoenix
Sulphur Company, Armourville, Pa." It was marked "Collect" and "Keep
Dry." It was a nice package, done up in a masterly manner, and the tags
were to fill a rush order from the sulphur company.

Flannery pulled the package across the counter, and was about to drop it
on the scales when the "Collect" caught his eye, and he held out his
hand to Mr. Warold.

"Have ye brung th' receipt-book with ye?" he asked.

Mr. Warold felt in his coat-pocket. He had forgotten to bring the
receipt book, and Flannery drew a pad of blank receipts toward himself,
and dipped a pen into the ink. Then he looked at the address.

"'Pho-_e_-nix,'" he read slowly. "That do be a queer sort av a worrd,
Mr. Warold. 'Pho-_e_-nix!' Is it a man's name, I dunno?"

"Feenix," pronounced Mr. Warold, grinning.

Flannery was writing carefully with his tongue clasped firmly between
his teeth, but he stopped and looked up.

"'T is an odd way t' spell a worrd av that same pronownciation," he
said, and then, suddenly, he laid down his pen and turned to the list
of three hundred words that was pasted beside his desk.

"Oh, ho!" he exclaimed, when he had run his finger down the list, and
then he ran it still farther and said it again, and more vigorously, and
turned back to Mr. Warold. He shook his head and pushed the package
across to Mr. Warold.

"Tek it back home, Mr. Warold," he said, "and change th' spellin' of th'
worrds on th' address av it. 'T is agin th' rules av th' ixpriss company
as it is. There be no 'o' in th' feenix av th