stler
with as much vehemence in my manner as if he were in danger of being
burned to death, and induced him to harness a team, in what I
considered about twice the necessary length of time; drove three miles
in the morning twilight for Mrs. Sweet, a motherly old maid in the
nursing business, who had officiated at Bessie's own _debut_ upon the
stage of life. When I had got back and returned the team to the stable,
and was walking about the lower rooms in a restless manner, feeling as
if I had suddenly become a hopeless outcast, the doctor came down
stairs, and said, with amazing calmness, as though it was the most
commonplace thing in the world,--

"Getting on nicely. Fine boy, sir! Mrs. Travers is quite comfortable.
Will look in again in the course of the morning."

Then I was left alone again, an outcast and a wanderer in my own home.
All the life was up stairs, including the wee bit of new life that had
come to venture upon the perils and vicissitudes of the great world. It
was two hours, but it seemed a month, before any one relieved my
solitude, and then it was at Bessie's interposition--in fact, a command
that she had to insist upon until her mother was afraid of her getting
excited--that I was admitted to behold the mysteries above.

Well, it is nobody's business about the particulars of that chamber. It
was too sacred for description; but there was the tiny, quivering, red
new-comer, already dressed in some of the dainty liliputian garments,
and very much astonished and not altogether pleased at the effect.
Bessie was proud and happy, the nurse, moving about silently, knew just
what to do and how to do it, and the mother-in-law held supreme command.
She was grand and severe, and evidently her wishes had been disregarded
in respect to the sex of her grandchild. She feared the consequences of
another Charlie launched into a world already too degenerate, and she
had hoped for an addition to the superior sex. But Bessie and I were
mightily pleased that it was a boy.

There was little to be said then, but in a few days the restraint began
to be relaxed, and discussions arose about what had become the most
important member of the household. Even the widow must be content with
the second place now, but I began to have misgivings lest my position
had been permanently fixed as the third. In my secret mind, however, I
determined to assert my rights as soon as Bessie was strong again, and
reduce my mother-in-law to the