f the meal. However, after a
slight pause, Dan gives him a piece of beef-steak, his mother in the
meantime says:

"I wonder how that boy learns to be so rude."

"Why," replies John Teed, "by playing with those bad boys down near the
carriage factory. I saw him there about nine o'clock this morning, and
what's more, I can tell you that unless he keeps away from them he will
be ruined."

"I'm going to take him in hand as soon as he gets a little older and
make him toe the mark," says Dan. "Well Mudge,"--Dan nearly always calls
his wife Mudge, for a pet name--"give me another cup of tea, woman, and
then I'll go back to the factory, that is as soon as I have taken a pull
or two at my pipe."

"What! are you going without eating some of the bread pudding I went to
the trouble of making because I thought you would like it?" asks Olive.

"Oh, you've got pudding have you; all right, I'll have some if it's
cold," replies Dan.

"Oh, yes, it's cold enough by this time. Come, Esther, help me to clear
away these dishes, and you, Jane, please bring in the pudding, it is out
on the door-step near the rain-water barrel."

The dishes having been cleared away, and the pudding brought, all ate a
due share, and after some further conversation about the midnight milker
of the cow, Esther remarks that she believes the thief to be one of the
Micmac Indians from the camp up the road. Everybody laughs at such a
wild idea, and they all leave the table. Esther, takes George from his
chair, after first untying his feet, and then helps Olive to remove the
dishes to the kitchen, where she washes them, and then goes to the sofa
in the parlor to take a nap. Dan in the meantime has enjoyed his smoke
and gone back to the factory, as has also William Cox. John Teed has
gone up the Main Street to see his sister Maggie, and Jane has returned
to Mr. Dunlap's. Willie is out in the street again with the bad boys,
and Olive has just commenced to make a new plaid dress for George, who
has gone to sleep in his little crib in the small sewing-room.

Esther, after sleeping for about an hour, comes into the dining room
where Olive is sewing and says, "Olive, I am going out to take a walk,
and if Bob should come while I am out, don't forget to tell him that I
will be in this evening, and shall expect him."

"All right Esther," says her sister, "but you had better be careful
about Bob, and how you keep company with him; you know what we heard
about him only