work, and Phil tumbling with baby-brother on
the floor, making new holes and rents for fresh darns and patches.

Mrs Maylands was a student and lover of the Bible. Her children,
though a good deal wilder, were sweet-tempered like herself. It is
needless to add that in spite of adverse circumstances they were all
moderately happy. The fair telegraphist smiled, almost laughed, as her
mind hovered over the home circle.

From the contemplation of this pleasant and romantic picture she was
roused by a familiar rustle at her elbow. Recalling her mind from the
west of Ireland, she fixed it on a mass of telegrams which had just
arrived from various parts of the city.

They had been sucked through several pneumatic tubes--varying from a few
yards to two miles in length--had been checked, assorted, registered,
and distributed by boys to the various telegraphists to whose lot they
fell. May Maylands chanced, by a strange coincidence, to command the
instrument in direct connection with Cork. The telegrams just laid
beside her were those destined for that city, and the regions to which
it was a centre of redistribution. Among others her own village was in
connection with it, and many a time had she yearned to touch her keys
with a message of love to her mother, but the rules of the office
sternly forbade this. The communicative touch which she dispensed so
freely to others was forbidden to herself. If she, or any other
telegraphist in St. Martin's-le-Grand, wished to send a private message,
it became necessary to step out of the office, go to the appointed
place, pay her shilling, and become one of the public for the occasion.
Every one can see the necessity for such a rule in the circumstances.

May's three-keyed machine, by the way, did not actually send forth the
electricity. It only punched holes in a long tape of white paper, which
holes, according to their relative arrangement, represented the
alphabet. Having punched a message by playing on the keys, she
transferred her tape to the electric machine at her elbow and passed it
through. This transmitting machine was automatic or self acting. It
required only to be fed with perforated tapes. In Ireland the
receiving-machine presented its messages in the form of dots and dashes,
which, according to arrangement, became alphabetic. You don't
understand this, reader, eh? It would be surprising if you did! A
treatise on electric telegraphy would be required to mak