she said,--

"Where have you been lately, Josh?"

"Why?" he replied, evidently surprised at the question and manner of
the girl.

"That, sir," she responded, significantly pointing to the pin. "Such
articles don't get here but in one way, in these hard times, which
compel us to put up with thorns for pins, and half tories for beaux,"
she added, with a meaning and roguish look.

"Won't you accept it, Vine?" he said, obviously disconcerted but
pretending not to understand her allusions.

"Not unless you tell me honestly how you got it, sir," she replied,
decisively.

"O, picked it up somewhere; don't remember now," he evasively answered.

"That, now, is a thumper, I know," she rejoined, with a pretty toss of
the head. "But you don't put me off so. The fact is Josh, I suspect
you have been among the tories to-day. Now be honest, and tell me, sir."

And for the next ten minutes the determined girl plied her reluctant
and perplexed companion, by all the means which her ingenuity could
invent, to accomplish her object; teasing, coaxing and threatening by
turns, till, being unable to resist any longer, he replied,--

"Well, I will tell you; and it can't do any hurt either, for they will