entertaining the company, I was told I was wanted.

"When I got out of the room, there was the man I had hired to wait,
and says he:-

"'If you please, ma'am where are the knives? I can't find any at
all!'

"'No knives!' says I. 'Dear me, don't come to me about the knives.
Ask the cook, of course.'

"'Please, ma'am, I have asked her, and she only laughed.'

"'Then,' said I, 'ask the housemaid. It's impossible for me to come
out and look for the knives.'

"Well, ladies," continued No. 4, "would you believe it?--could anyone
believe it?--when I sat down to dinner, and began to help the soup,
no sooner had the silver ladle (MY ladle is silver, ladies) been
plunged into the tureen, than a most singular rattling was heard.

"'William,' cried I, half in a whisper, to the waiter who was holding
the plate, 'what in the world is this? Surely Cook has not left the
bones in?'

"'Please, ma'am, I don't know,' was all the man could say.

"Well--there was no remedy now, so I dipped the ladle in again, and
lifted out--oh! ma'am, I know if it was anybody but myself who told
you, you wouldn't believe it--a ladleful of the lost knives! There