"Yes, you are in the best of humors, and always are so, unless--I
aggravate you," replied my mother, whimpering.

"Well," replied my father, lowering his tail, "I expect we've come to a
right understanding at last. So now get up and wipe your eyes; but
recollect, that whenever you dare to tell me that I'm vexed, I won't be
so ungenteel as to contradict you."

Thus was the mastery gained by my father, and never lost. It is true
that sometimes my mother would forget herself, and would get on as far
as "There now, you're--," but she would stop there, and correct herself,
saying, "No, you're not," and allow her temper to evaporate by singing
one of her usual ditties, as "Hush-a-by, baby, on the tree-top;" but my
father never took notice of her singing; and being really a very
good-tempered man, my mother's temper gradually became improved.

The return of my father made some alteration in our mode of life. He
might, if he had pleased, have lived as an out-pensioner with my mother;
but this he would not do. He used to come in almost every evening to see
her, and she used to provide for him a pot of porter, which he seldom
exceeded. If he had friends with him, they paid for what they drank.
This pot of porter per diem was the only demand made upon my mother for
permission to remain separate, and she did not grumble at it. His
tobacco he found himself out of the tobacco money allowed at the
hospital. He had received some pay, which, contrary to his former
custom, he had laid by in the charge of one of the lieutenants of the
hospital, for at that time there were no savings banks.

As a married man my father had the liberty to introduce his wife and
children into the hospital at meal-times, to share his allowance with