t will be
embarrassing to us and, it may be, amusing to our hearers; but if we
have courage and patience, we shall be doing a good work not only for
ourselves, but for all our generation and the generations that are to
come. Well, this naturally appealed to me, and I was thinking of
proposing it to you all this evening; and then, as we were driving over,
it occurred to me that it might be made into a rather amusing game."

"Miranda," said her husband, "is there anything in life that you do
_not_ think can be made into a rather amusing game? But go on!"

"Dear Mammy!" said Phil. "Do you remember when you and I both had the
toothache, and you thought it might be amusing to count the jumps and
see how many there were in a minute?"

"Well, so it would have been," said his mother, "if we had only had a
little more fortitude. Now if you are all going to laugh at me, you
shall not learn the game."

"Oh, we will be good!" exclaimed the Merryweathers. "We truly will."

"The game of _Vocabulary_," said Mrs. Merryweather, "is played thus.
One--I, for example--begins to tell a story. I say, 'I went out to walk
this morning, and I met--' there I stop short, and you, in turn, give a
verb synonymous, more or less, with 'met.' This goes around the circle
till some one cannot find a verb, and that some one must continue the
story, stopping at any word he likes. I fear this is not very clear;
perhaps we can illustrate it best playing it. I will begin as I
suggested. I went out to walk this morning, and on my way I met--" she
stopped.

"Encountered!" said Mr. Merryweather.

"Approached!" said the Colonel.

"Ran up against!" said Gerald.

"Fell afoul of!" said Phil.

"Fell in with!" said Bell.

"Peggy, you come next."

"Oh! I can't!" cried poor Peggy. "They have said everything; Mrs.
Merryweather, I can't _ever_ play anything of this kind, you know. I am
too stupid."

"Nonsense, my child; you are not in the least stupid. If you cannot
think of a word, go on with the story."

"But I don't know how!" cried Peggy, her eyes growing large and round,
with a look that Gertrude and Margaret knew only too well. The tears
were not far behind those round blue eyes; and Margaret hastened to the
rescue. "You met a man, dear!" she whispered. "That is all you need
say."

"Well--I met a man!" said Peggy, with a gasp.

"Person!"

"Individual!"

"Anthropoid ape!"

"Masculine mortal!"

"Chump!"

"I object to the definition!" sa