ing wits when she came into his lodge to
open his window, inspect his wood-closet, and turn his old dogs out of
doors. Lockwood bared his old bald head before his new mistress, turned
an appealing look towards his niece, and vaguely trembled before her
little ladyship's authority. Gumbo, dressing his master for dinner,
talked about Elisha (of whom he had heard the chaplain read in the
morning), "and his bald head and de boys who call um names, and de bars
eat em up, and serve um right," says Gumbo. But as for my lady, when
discoursing with her cousin about the old porter, "Pooh, pooh! Stupid
old man!" says she; "past his work, he and his dirty old dogs! They are
as old and ugly as those old fish in the pond!" (Here she pointed to two
old monsters of carp that had been in a pond in Castlewood gardens for
centuries, according to tradition, and had their backs all covered with
a hideous grey mould.) "Lockwood must pack off; the workhouse is the
place for him; and I shall have a smart, good-looking, tall fellow in
the lodge that will do credit to our livery."

"He was my grandfather's man, and served him in the wars of Queen Anne,"
interposed Mr. Warrington. On which my lady cried, petulantly, "O Lord!
Queen Anne's dead, I suppose, and we ain't a-going into mourning for
her."

This matter of Lockwood was discussed at the family dinner, when her
ladyship announced her intention of getting rid of the old man.

"I am told," demurely remarks Mr. Van den Bosch, "that, by the laws,
poor servants and poor folks of all kinds are admirably provided in
their old age here in England. I am sure I wish we had such an asylum
for our folks at home, and that we were eased of the expense of keeping
our old hands."

"If a man can't work he ought to go!" cries her ladyship.

"Yes, indeed, and that's a fact!" says grandpapa.

"What! an old servant?" asks my lord.

"Mr. Van den Bosch possibly was independent of servants when he was
young," remarks Mr. Warrington.

"Greased my own boots, opened my own shutters, sanded and watered my
own----"

"Sugar, sir?" says my lord.

"No; floor, son-in-law!" says the old man, with a laugh; "though there
is such tricks, in grocery stores, saving your ladyship's presence."

"La, pa! what should I know about stores and groceries?" cries her
ladyship.

"He! Remember stealing the sugar, and what came on it, my dear
ladyship?" says grandpapa.

"At any rate, a handsome, well-grown man in our livery