vexation of spirit from first to last. Every knot will be examined,
every shingle ironed flat before it is laid, every nail counted and
driven by rule. When I tell her it would wear me out, body and mind,
to feel obliged to keep things always in order, she gravely reminds me
that Mrs. Keep-clean lived ten years longer than Mrs. Clean-up,
besides having an easier time, a tidy house, and an enviable
reputation all her life. Yes; I was thankful she had gone philandering
off after May-flowers, and hoped she would stay till I had had time to
brush up the room and get John into presentable shape. But as soon as
I went to rouse him I was thoroughly frightened. His face was flushed,
his hair was ruffled, and he looked up in such a dazed kind of way, I
really thought he was going to have something dreadful. He held out
your letter and told me to read the last sentence, which I did. Even
then I didn't understand what was the trouble until he went on to say
that your final charge was too much for him. He was totally
discouraged. You began, he said, by urging him to build a stone house,
which neither of us liked, though we finally came around to it,--even
went so far as to commence hauling stones. All at once you went into
ecstasies over brickwork, and argued for it as though our hope of
salvation lay in our living in a brick house. Now, as he was beginning
to feel that he must change his mind again (he would almost as soon
change his head) and cultivate an admiration for brickwork, you must
needs switch off upon another track and coolly advise him to build of
wood! He declared he was further from a new house to-day than three
months ago. At that rate we should live in the old one till it tumbled
down over our heads, which I don't propose to do.

[Illustration: A WISE GENERAL.]

The baby was asleep, so I sat down on the lounge, took John's head in