never finish, and the
sword-swallower seemed unable to restrain his impatience.

At last the finishing touch had been put to the table, the last dish
placed in position, and then, with a certain kind of grace, which no one
but a man as thin as Mr. Treat could assume, he advanced to the edge of
the platform and said,

"Ladies and gentlemen, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to invite
you all, including Mr. Tyler's friend Stubbs, to the bountiful repast
which my Lilly has prepared for--"

At this point, Mr. Treat's speech--for it certainly seemed as if he had
commenced to make one--was broken off in a most summary manner. His wife
had come up behind him, and, with as much ease as if he had been a
child, lifted him from off the floor and placed him gently in the chair
at the head of the table.

"Come right up and get dinner," she said to her guests. "If you had
waited until Samuel had finished his speech everything on the table
would have been stone-cold."

The guests proceeded to obey her kindly command; and it is to be
regretted that the sword-swallower had no better manners than to jump on
to the platform with one bound and seat himself at the table with the
most unseemly haste. The others, and more especially Toby, proceeded in
a leisurely and more dignified manner.

A seat had been placed by the side of the one intended for Toby for the
accommodation of Mr. Stubbs, who suffered a napkin to be tied under his
chin, and behaved generally in a manner that gladdened the heart of his
young master.

Mr. Treat cut generous slices from the turkey for each guest, and Mrs.
Treat piled their plates high with all sorts of vegetables, complaining,
after the manner of housewives generally, that the food was not cooked
as she would like to have had it, and declaring that she had had poor
luck with everything that morning, when she firmly believed in her heart
that her table had never looked better.

After the company had had the edge taken off their appetites--which
effect was produced on the sword-swallower only after he had been
helped three different times, the conversation began by the Fat Woman
asking Toby how he got along with Mr. Lord.

Toby could not give a very good account of his employer, but he had the
good sense not to cast a damper on a party of pleasure by reciting his
own troubles; so he said, evasively,

"I guess I shall get along pretty well, now that I have got so many
friends."

Just as he had