whole lot of times, mamma. He said he guess' pretty soon he'd haf to be
in the lunatic asylum if Miss Pratt stayed a few more days with her word
little dog an' her word Willie Baxter an' all the other word calfs. Mrs.
Parcher said he oughtn't to say 'word,' mamma. She said, 'Hush, hush!'
to him, mamma. He talked like this, mamma: he said, 'I'll be word if I
stand it!' An' he kept gettin' crosser, an' he said, 'Word! Word! WORD!
WOR--'"

"There!" Mrs. Baxter interrupted, sharply. "That will do, Jane! We'll
talk about something else now, I think."

Jane looked hurt; she was taking great pleasure in this confidential
interview, and gladly would have continued to quote the harried Mr.
Parcher at great length. Still, she was not entirely uncontent: she must
have had some perception that her performance merely as a notable bit of
reportorial art--did not wholly lack style, even if her attire did. Yet,
brilliant as Jane's work was, Mrs. Baxter felt no astonishment; several
times ere this Jane had demonstrated a remarkable faculty for the
retention of details concerning William. And running hand in hand with
a really superb curiosity, this powerful memory was making Jane an even
greater factor in William's life than he suspected.

During the glamors of early love, if there be a creature more deadly
than the little brother of a budding woman, that creature is the little
sister of a budding man. The little brother at least tells in the open
all he knows, often at full power of his lungs, and even that may be
avoided, since he is wax in the hands of bribery; but the little sister
is more apt to save her knowledge for use upon a terrible occasion; and,
no matter what bribes she may accept, she is certain to tell her mother
everything. All in all, a young lover should arrange, if possible, to be