aid attention to him. Comprehending the meaning of this incident, he
drew his hand across his mouth to conceal the smile that could not be
wholly restrained. Then he hurried back into the room to see that his
child was "tucked up" and properly covered for the night. Finding
himself in the dark, where he could not be observed, he laughed
deeply and silently, his mirth all the greater because of the
oppressive gravity of every one else. Then bending over, he said, as
he kissed the little one:

"I thought you were asleep, Nellie?"

"So I was, but Mr. Ruggles spoke those bad words so loud he woked
me."

"You mustn't get up again, will you?"

"Not if you don't want me to."

"I have just told you I don't wish you to."

"Then I wont get up."

The father lingered in the room, until he mastered his disposition to
laugh, and then, when he walked out among his friends no countenance
was graver than his.

"I say, Dawson," said Ruggles, swallowing a lump in his throat, "will
you oblige me by acting as chairman?--I don't feel--very--well."

The gentleman walked forward to where Ruggles had been standing with
his back against the bar, looking down in the faces of his friends.
The poor fellow seemed to have aged ten years, as he slouched off to
an upturned box near the door, where he dejectedly seated himself.

"What is your pleasure, gentlemen?" asked Dawson, as if presiding over
the deliberations of one of the most august assemblages in the land;
"I am ready to hear any suggestion or motion."

Al Bidwell rose to his feet.

"Mr. Chairman, I wish to endorse with all my heart, the soul-stirring,
eloquent address to which we have just listened from the late Mr.
Ruggles,--I mean the late Chairman. Them sentiments of his is as sound
as a gold dollar. He maintains that any gent that uses an unproper
word, such as he used and which I scorn to repeat, in the presence of
the young lady, who has just listened to his remarks, oughter to be
sent to the individooal whose name is too shocking fur me to
pronounce, since the aforesaid young lady is in the adjoining
apartment, from whence she was awoke by the awful profanity of the
gent who lately served as our chairman."

And having gotten back on Ruggles in this masterly manner, Bidwell sat
down, slung one leg over the other, and relit his pipe. The oppressive
silence was broken by a prodigious sigh from Ruggles.

Parson Brush, after the stillness had continued some minutes, rose t