remark which the reader will
understand better than Mr. Peaslee ever did.

"You listen when you're eating your supper!" cried Jim, as he
climbed down from the fence and ran toward the house. "I'm going to
play on that harmonica!"

And Solomon rejoiced. Poor man, he did not know how the popularity
of his gift was destined to endure; he did not know that he had let
loose upon the circumambient air sounds worse than any ever emitted
by the Calico Cat.

Filled with the pleasant sense of having "made it up" with the boy
whom he thought he had so greatly injured, Solomon started along
the path toward the kitchen door. He began to realize that he had an
appetite--something now long unfamiliar to him. As he drew near, an
appetizing odor smote his nostrils.

"Eyesters, I swanny!" he ejaculated.

It was unheard of! There was nothing which Solomon, who had a keen
relish for good things to eat, and would even have been extravagant
in this one particular had his firm-willed wife permitted, enjoyed
more than an oyster stew, or which he had a chance to taste less
often. Oysters could be had in town for sixty cents a quart, a
sum that seems not large; but in Mrs. Peaslee's mind they were
associated with the elegance and luxury of church "sociables,"
and with the dissipation of supper after country dances. They
were extravagant food. Solomon could not believe his nose.

He entered the door, and there upon the table stood the big tureen,
with two soup plates at Mrs. Peaslee's place. There was nothing else
but the stew, of course, but it lent a gala air to the whole
kitchen.

"Why, Sarepty, Sarepty!" he said to his wife.

"You goin' to be arrested?" asked Mrs. Peaslee, sharply. She wanted
no sentiment over her unwonted generosity; but, truth to tell, when
she had seen Solomon depart that morning, and realized that he might
be going to arrest, possibly to trial, perhaps to conviction and to
jail, she had felt a sudden fright, a sudden sympathy for her
husband, and she had bought half a pint of oysters for a stew--in
spite of expense.

"No, I ain't going to be arrested," said Solomon, with satisfaction.
"The grand jury found there wa'n't anythin' to it; but--but,
Sarepty--"

He paused helplessly, unable to express his complex feelings about
the stew, and the attitude on the part of his wife which it
revealed.

"Oh, well," said his wife, "after all, 't ain't 's if you'd gone and
lost money."

And after supper Mr. Peaslee c