oil, for which we paid a dollar and forty cents a gallon, was out
again.

"Impossible!" I ejaculated.

"But it is mum," said Hannah. "There's not a scrimption left--not so
much as the full of a thimble."

"You must be mistaken. A gallon of oil has never been burned in this
house in four days."

"We burned the other gallon in four days," said Hannah, with
provoking coolness. "The evenings are very long, and we have a great
many lights. There's the parlor light, and the passage light, and
the--"

"It's no use for you to talk, Hannah," I replied, interrupting her.
"No use in the world. A gallon of oil in four days has never gone by
fair means in this house. So don't try to make me believe it--for I
won't. I'm too old a housekeeper for that."

Finding that I was not to be convinced, Hannah became angry, and
said something about her not being a "thafe." I was unmoved by this,
however; and told her, with as much sternness of manner as I could
assume, that I should hold her responsible for any future waste of
the article; and that if she did not feel inclined to remain on such
terms, she had better go.

"Dade, thin, and I'll go to onst," was the girl's spirited answer.