unity of her thoughts. The words which she was reading rose and fell
with the screams and lulls of the child, and she felt obliged to close
her book, until the storm was over. When quiet was restored in the
cradle, the children came in from sliding, crying with cold fingers--and
just as she was going to them, the dinner-bell rang.

"How did your new plan work this morning?" inquired Mr. James.

"Famously," was the reply, "I read about seventy pages of German, and as
many more in French."

"I am sure _I_ did not hinder you long."

"No--yours was only one of a dozen interruptions."

"O, well! you must not get discouraged. Nothing succeeds well the first
time. Persist in your arrangement, and by and by the family will learn
that if they want anything of you, they must wait until after dinner."

"But what can a man do?" replied his wife; "he cannot go down town
without a shirt-bosom."

"I was in a bad case," replied Mr. James, "it may not happen again. I am
anxious to have you try the month out faithfully, and then we will see
what has come of it."

The second day of trial was a stormy one. As the morning was dark,
Bridget over-slept, and consequently breakfast was too late by an hour.
This lost hour Mrs. James could not recover. When the clock struck
eleven, she seemed but to have commenced her morning's work, so much