onstructions. His sales rose one third after
this, and Joe's spirits went up with them. On Liza's next visit she
suggested that he might make a parlour too, she thought, and old Joe,
getting quite venturesome, jumped at the idea.

"'I've a cousin in service, Joe,' said Liza, 'she lives nurse at Mrs.
Spenser's, and I'll ask her if she can't save us up a few bits and
scraps of print and muslin. I think I could help you a little too, even
if 'tis only in a small way.'

"'Thankee sure, Liza,' replied Joe, delighted, 'and now I'll tell ye
what, you and mother come up some afternoon, and we'll see what we can
do between us all. I'll see ye safe back at night.'

"And blind Liza and her mother did come, and what between Liza's neat
and clever fingers, her old mother's sharp eyes, and Joe's own handy
work, they had speedily turned out half a dozen little parlours, that
Joe fairly hopped round, shouting with delight. The cousin had been very
generous and set them up with a tolerable hoard of bits and scraps, so
that, what with paper and paint and all, they were, as Joe declared,
"fit for a queen to live in." The walls were papered with Joe's choicest
scraps, and the floor carpeted with a piece of print, while scraps of
muslin stood for curtains. Liza had manufactured some square cushions of
a suitable size, which did duty for ottomans, and a round piece of card
board, glued on a pillar leg, composed of an empty cotton reel painted
brown, did duty for a centre table. Then Joe decorated the centre of the
back wall with what he considered a splendid likeness of a grand drawing
room grate. He looked at his work with great satisfaction, and was never
weary of pointing out the best charms of each parlour to the old lady,
Liza's mother, who really was a very useful and agreeable helper to the
party. She perched her old horn spectacles on the tip of her little
nose, and peeped in, suggesting improvements here and there, and she cut
out the carpets quite tidily. Their only regret was that Liza could not
see them too, but she was so cheerful, and guessed and described what
the parlours were like so well, that they declared she must have eyes in
the tips of her fingers.

"'Now,' said Joe, as they finished the sixth by the dim light of a
halfpenny dip, 'ladies, I'm uncommon obliged to you for your help, which
great it is, and well I shall do by it, I don't doubt, but I'm afraid I
shan't manage 'em so well for myself arterwards.'

"'O ye