s Natly with indignation.

"Come, come," cried Sam, "no treason! It ain't such a shame as it
looks. You see the Company have just bin introducin' a noo system of
signallin', an' they ha'n't got enough of men who understand the thing
to work it, d'ye see; so of course we've got to work double tides, as
the Jack-tars say. If they _continue_ to keep us at it like that I'll
say it's a shame too, but we must give 'em time to git things into
workin' order. Besides, they're hard-up just now. There's a deal o'
money throw'd away by companies fightin' an' opposin' one another--
cuttin' their own throats, I calls it--and they're awful hard used by
the public in the way o' compensation too. It's nothin' short o'
plunder and robbery. If the public would claim moderately, and juries
would judge fairly, an' directors would fight less, shareholders would
git higher dividends, the public would be better served, and railway
servants would be less worked and better paid."

"I don't care two straws, Sam," said little Mrs Natly with great
firmness, "not two straws for their fightin's, an' joories, and
davydens--all I know is that they've no right whatever to kill my
'usband, and it's a great shame!"

With this noble sentiment the earnest little woman concluded the
evening's conversation, and allowed her wearied partner to retire to
rest.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

A SOIREE WILDLY INTERRUPTED, AND FOLLOWED UP BY SURPRISING REVELATIONS.

One afternoon Captain Lee and Emma called on Mrs Tipps, and found her
engaged in earnest conversation with Netta. The captain, who was always
in a boiling-over condition, and never felt quite happy except when in
the act of planning or carrying out some scheme for the increase of
general happiness, soon discovered that Netta was discussing the details
of a little treat which she meant to give to the boys and girls of a
Sunday-school which she and her mother superintended. With all his
penetration he did not, however, find out that the matter which called
most for consideration was the financial part of the scheme--in other
words, how to accomplish the end desired with extremely limited means.
He solved the question for them, however, by asserting that he intended
to give all the scholars of all the Sunday-schools in the neighbourhood
a treat, and of course meant to include Netta's school among the rest--
unless, of course, she possessed so much exclusive pride as to refuse to
join him.

There