f saying that my sympathies have gone out with enthusiasm toward that
gifted man ever since I heard him remark, not very long ago, that he
liked to have things cluttered up in his house. I am not able to
define the compound "cluttered-up," but it conveys to my mind a meaning
that is perfectly clear, and it suggests conditions which are pleasing
to me. I, too, like to have things cluttered up. The most dreadful
day in the week is, to my thinking, Friday--not because we invariably
have fried fish upon that day, but because it is upon Friday that a
vandal hired girl appears in my study and, under the direction of my
wife, proceeds to "put things in shape." Alice insists that I am not
orderly or methodical, yet amid all the so-called disorder of my study
I can at any moment lay my hands upon any chart or map or book or paper
I require, provided everything is left just where I drop it.

My doctrine about such things is that books and charts and papers were
made for use and are therefore of the greatest utility when most
available. When I am at work I like my tools around me; if they are
not handy, my work is interrupted, and an interruption often breaks the
train of thought and renders impotent or at least mediocre an endeavor
which elsewise would be excellent. In their ambition to "put things in
shape," and to give me an object lesson in order and method, Alice and
her vandal hired girl hide my tools of trade, disposing of my books,
papers, and pens, and even of my slippers, in such ingenious wise as to
keep me busy for hours finding these necessities and replacing them
where they will be available.

I thought that Alice and her mercenary were the only women in the world
addicted to this weekly practice, but from what Lawyer Miles and other
married men tell me I gather that there are other wives in the world
quite as possessed of the seven devils of order and method as Alice is.

To return to that other matter: Alice has hinted to me that she intends
to store a great deal of my own porcelain and pottery away in the
butler's pantry. I had hoped that when we got into the new house we
should have plenty of space for displaying the platters, plates, bowls,
teapots, etc., etc., to which age has added a special charm, and the
collection of which has involved the expenditure of much time and money
upon my part.

I am convinced, however, that Alice intends to hide all these beautiful
old specimens away; the butler's pantr