ithout ceasing, in a corner of our car, while Kibosh slumbered; and I
wondered if the Higher Spelling was the subject that brought their heads
so close to each other. That girl was more and more a disappointment to
me; and I retired in no very good humor.

Mycle was not the only word to which, as I dressed myself next morning,
I found my opinion to be entirely adverse; frate seemed to me
objectionable, nor did I feel any leanings toward brij and lite. And the
surprising readiness with which Professor Willows accepted my criticism
failed to make upon me the happy impression which the adoption of one's
views by another is apt to cause.

"You don't like frate, suh?" he said, whipping out his pencil, and
quickly writing on his list. "Bless yore heart, then we'll just make it
frait. How does that hit yore fancy?"

I thanked him for his amiability, but my fancy was as little hit by
frait as it had been by frate; and it was still less hit when he came to
me with his customary enthusiasm some twenty-five minutes after
breakfast, to show me forty-three more words that he had simplified
since rising from table. Still keeping all thoughts to myself, I read:--

Earth and dearth to irth and dirth, like mirth. Also worth to
wirth. Pheasants whirr. Cats should pirr.

I passed the list back with I know not what commendations of his
rapidity. He retired with it to the rear platform, where sat Miss
Appleby; and almost immediately I heard egregious peals of laughter
coming from them both. This, for some reason, kindled in me such
annoyance that I put my head out of the door, and cried loudly to them:
"Do you intend to make flirt flurt, or hurt hirt? And how about squirt?"
And I shut the door sharp upon my words before they could make answer
to me. But still, even through the closed door and thick plate-glass
windows, their shameless merriment reached me, and seemed, if anything,
louder than ever.

The outlook for the Higher Spelling was scarce a bright one, I thought,
if the rest of my colleagues, whom I had yet to meet, should approach
their solemn responsibilities in anything of the spirit shown by
Professor Willows and Miss Appleby. His facile adoption of a new
spelling, and equally facile relinquishment of it, gave but poor
evidence of any deep thought on this matter; and to see him through the
plate-glass as he talked to her on the rear platform, no one would
easily be persuaded that spelling was the subject of their