her audacious heresies can expand your dear
orthodox eyes. Expostulation and entreaty only feed her affected
eccentricities and skepticism, and if you will persistently and
quietly ignore them, they will shrivel as rapidly as a rank
gourd-vine, uprooted on an August day."

"Pooh! pooh! my dear boy. How you men do prate sometimes of
matters concerning which you are as ignorant as the yearling calves
and gabbling geese that I suppose your learned astronomers see
driven every day to pasture on that range of mountains in the
moon--Eratosthenes--that modern science pretends to have discovered,
and about which you read so marvellous a paper last week."

Miss Jane reverently clung to the dishonored remnants of the Ptolemaic
theory, and scouted the philosophy of Copernicus which she vehemently
averred was not worth "a pinch of snuff," else the water in the well
would surely run out once in every twenty-four hours. Now, as she
dived into the depths of her stocking-basket, collecting the socks
neatly darned and rolled over each other, her brother smiled, and
answered, good humoredly,--

"Dear Janet, I really have not time to follow you to the moon, nor to
prove to you that your astronomical doctrines have been dead and
decently buried for nearly three hundred years; but I should like to
hear what you desire to tell me with reference to Salome. What is the
matter now?"

"Nothing ails her, except a violent attack of industry, which has
lasted much longer than I thought possible; for, to tell you the truth
without stint or varnish, she certainly was the most sluggish piece of
flesh I ever undertook to manage. Study she would not, keep house she
could not, sewing gave her the headache, and knitting made her
cross-eyed; but, behold! she has suddenly found out that her pretty
little pink palms were made for something better than propping her
peach-bloom cheeks. A few days ago I accidentally discovered that she
was sitting up until long after midnight, and when I questioned her
closely, she finally confessed that she had entered into a contract to
furnish a certain amount of embroidery every month. Bless the child!
can you guess what she intends to do with the money? Hoard it up in
order to rent a couple of rooms, where she can take Jessie and
Stanley to live with her. Ulpian, it is a praiseworthy aim, you must
admit."

"Eminently commendable, and I respect and admire the motive that
incites her to such a laborious course. At pr