"That he'd make a man uv him that should be a pride an' a support to
the owld age uv me, an' a blissin' to the day I med up my mind to
eddicate him. That wor two year ago, Teddy Ginniss; an', so far,
hasn' the gintleman done by yees as niver yer own daddy could? Hasn'
he put yees to the readin' an' the writin' an' the joggerphy--
picters, an' the nate figgers that yees puts on me washin'--bills,
till it's proud I am to hand 'em to the gintlefolks, an' say, 'If ye
plaze, the figgers is pooty plain. It's me b'y made 'em'? Now till
me, Teddy, hasn' the shquire done all this by yees, an' give yees
the fifty dollars by the year, all the same as if he give ye nothin'
else?"

"He has so, mother."

"An' whin I wanted to wash for him widout a cint uv charge, an'
towld him it was jist foon to rinshe out his bit things, bekase he
is that good--natered an' quite that there's niver the fust roobin'
to do to 'em, he says,--

"'An' if I let yees do 'em widout charge, I'd as lieve wear the
shirt of Misther Nessus;' an' more by token, Teddy Ginniss, I told
ye iver and oft to look in the big books an' see who was Misther
Nessus, an' what about his shirt."

"Faith and ye did, mother; but I never could find him yet. Some day
I'll ask the master," said Teddy with a puzzled look.

"An' so he pays me what I ax, an' it isn' for the likes uv him to be
knowin' what the others ud charge; an', whin he gives me forty cints
the dozen, he thinks, the poor innercint! that it's mooch as I would