"It would be _so_ trying if you sat at the tea-table and sighed." "Humor is the salt of life," smiled Mrs.Saxon.

"We may just as well get all the fun out of the little daily happenings.

Even 'the orphan' has her bright side!" As "the orphan" was a temporary member of the Wynchcote establishment she merits a word of description.

She came from an institution in the neighborhood, and, being the only servant procurable at the time, was tolerated in spite of a terrible propensity for smashing plates, and for carolling at the very pitch of a nasal voice.

She was a rough, good-tempered girl, devoted to Minx, the cat, and really kind if anybody had a headache or toothache, but quite without any sense of discrimination: she would show a traveling hawker into the drawing-room, and leave the clergyman standing on the doorstep, took the best serviettes to wipe the china, scoured the silver with Monkey Brand Soap, and systematically bespattered the kitchen tablecloth with ink.