onstrations were
very violent; she slapped Pat's face with her rosy palms, and pulled his
hair, and bit his fingers with her aching teeth, forgetting the while
the painful gums that had made her so wearisome all the day.

Nannie was uncommonly cheerful, for all was right now, and Mr. Bond was
well enough to visit them on the morrow, and Pat was back again, and
they were to remain in the pleasant attic for another quarter at least,
and mother had some work that promised a good profit, so there was no
pressing want upon them just now. Mr. Bond had sent some shirts to be
made against the summer. He did not like the common way of bestowing
charity. He always required an equivalent for what he handed out. He
would not have Nannie grow up with the feeling that she was a beggar, so
he found something to be done, and paid good round prices for the work.
Mrs. Bates stitched so busily, thinking he needed the garments all the
while. She didn't quite understand Mr. Bond, though! It didn't matter to
him if there were piles on piles of pure white linen in his great
trunks. What if somebody did get the good of them after his death! he
did not care to take his worldly treasure with him, but was quite
willing to leave a goodly portion for the benefit of others; besides,
many a worthy man owed his prim Sunday suit to those same heaped-up
chests, and it would have done you good to see the broad ruffles
bedecking the sons of Erin as they escorted their sweethearts to
vespers. They would cross themselves, and murmur a prayer for the
"masther," heretic though he was, and they knew they would get him out
of Purgatory, if masses and penances would avail. As for Nannie and her
mother, it was dangerous to say a word against their benefactor in their
presence. Nobody had ever dared the thing excepting Mrs. Flin, and she
would not encounter such a belaboring of tongues again for all the
bachelors in the world. Pat, too, was his most enthusiastic admirer, for
he had encouraged his going to spend his evenings in the neat attic
rather than crawl to his own miserable abode to be contaminated with the
fumes of rum and tobacco, and the scurrilous example of his abandoned
parents.

It was a wonder to the good man that there could be a spark of virtue in
the boy's character, and that he had been so far preserved from the
taint of his vile home as to care for the purity of his gentle
neighbor's. He did not remember how beautiful the contrast must be to
P