ill,
And in my dreams I dream,
The hill is like an Irish hill
Beside an Irish stream.
KENDALL.

"Don't dress to-night, if you don't mind, Cecil," said Jim, putting his
head into his cousin's room.

"Not dress?" Evening clothes were part of Cecil's training, and he kept
to them rigidly, putting on each night for dinner what Murty O'Toole,
having seen in wonder, referred to as "a quare little
cobbed-shwaller-tail jacket." He regarded with fine scorn the cheerful
carelessness of the boys where clothes were concerned. To Jim and Wally
who were generally immensely occupied until dinner-time, and more often
than not had further plans for the time following, putting on
regulation evening dress seemed a proceeding little short of lunatic;
but since Cecil "liked that sort of thing," they let him alone.
To-night, however, was different, and when Cecil repeated his query
half impatiently, Jim nodded.

"No. Didn't we tell you? It's the dance in the loft."

"Oh--don't you people ever dress for dances then?"

"Not for these dances," Jim answered. "It's the men's spree--all the
hands and their friends; and you can be jolly well certain they won't
run to dress clothes. So we make a point of not putting 'em on. Father
did one year, and felt very sorry he had."

"I don't know that I'm keen on going, anyway," said Cecil.

"Oh, I think you'd better. Dad likes us to go, and it's really rather
fun," Jim responded, patiently. "Norah's quite excited about it."

"Norah's young and enthusiastic," said Cecil.

"Oh, well, you're hardly hoary-headed yourself yet!" Jim grinned.
"Might as well be cheerful while you're alive, Cecil, 'cause you'll be
a long time dead!" He withdrew his head, shut the door with an
unconcerned bang, and his whistle died away up the corridor.

"Hang it!" said Cecil, disgustedly, looking at his forbidden garments.
"Who wants to go to a beastly servants' ball, anyhow?" He donned a dark
suit reluctantly, a little consoled in that its very recent cut would
certainly be an eye-opener to Billabong, and went down to dinner,
meeting on the way Norah, in a muslin frock, with her hair flying and
her eyes sparkling.

"Oh! I'm so glad you haven't dressed up!" said she. "It's such fun,
Cecil!--we've been helping to decorate the loft, and really you'd hardly
know it was a loft, it looks so decent. And it's so funny to see the
men; they pretend they don't care a bit, but I do believe they're quite
excite