place a well fitting tray into our trunks. About three feet of the back
of the wooden shell was then taken out, leaving the back of the box
exposed. From the center of the back of the box a square was cut out and
a trap door fitted in and hasped down.

The tiny building, on which pains, paint, and inventive genius had not
been spared to make it snug, comfortable, well lighted and well
ventilated, was placed securely on this vault.

After stones had been embedded in the earth at the back of the vault, to
keep it from falling upon the trap door, two or three heavy planks were
laid across the hollow close to the closet. These were first covered
with a barrowful of earth and then with a heap of brushwood.

Within the closet, in the left hand corner, a tall wooden box was
placed, about two-thirds full of dry, well sifted wood ashes. The box
also contained a small long-handled fire shovel. When about six inches
of the ashes had been strewn into the vault the closet was ready for
use. No; not quite; for squares of suitable paper had to be cut, looped
together with twine, and hung within convenient reaching distance of the
right hand; also a little to the left of this pad of paper, and above
the range of sight when seated, a ten pound paper bag of the toughest
texture had to be hung by a loop on a nail driven into the corner.

At first the rector thought that his guests would be "quick-witted
enough to understand the arrangement," but when he found that the
majority of them were, as the Scotch say, "dull in the uptak," he had to
think of some plan to enforce his rules and regulations. As
by-word-of-mouth instructions would have been rather embarrassing to
both sides, he tacked up explicit written orders, which must have
provoked many a smile. Above the bin of sifted ashes he nailed a card
which instructed "Those who use this closet must strew two shovelfuls of
ashes into the vault." Above the pad of clean paper he tacked the
thrifty proverb: "Waste not, want not;" and above the paper bag he
suspended a card bearing this warning: "All refuse paper must be put
into this bag; not a scrap of clean or unclean paper must be thrown into
the vault."

This had the desired effect. Some complacently united to humor their
host's whim, as they called it, and others, immediately recognizing its
utility and decency, took notes with a view to modifying their own
closet arrangements.

Sarah, the maid of all work, caused a good deal of am