ke a turn at them semioccasionally when pleasure palls or
parents chide. But I doubt if I do more than learn what 'a allybi' is
this year," and a sly laugh in Charlie's eye suggested that he sometimes
availed himself of this bit of legal knowledge.

"What do you do then?"

"Fair catechist, I enjoy myself. Private theatricals have been the rage
of late, and I have won such laurels that I seriously think of adopting
the stage as my profession."

"Really!" cried Rose, alarmed.

"Why not? If I must go to work, isn't that as good as anything?"

"Not without more talent than I think you possess. With genius one can
do anything without it one had better let the stage alone."

"There's a quencher for the 'star of the goodlie companie' to which I
belong. Mac hasn't a ray of genius for anything, yet you admire him for
trying to be an M.D.," cried Charlie, rather nettled at her words.

"It is respectable, at all events, and I'd rather be a second-rate
doctor than a second-rate actor. But I know you don't mean it, and only
say so to frighten me."

"Exactly. I always bring it up when anyone begins to lecture and it
works wonders. Uncle Mac turns pale, the aunts hold up their hands in
holy horror, and a general panic ensues. Then I magnanimously promise
not to disgrace the family and in the first burst of gratitude the dear
souls agree to everything I ask, so peace is restored and I go on my way
rejoicing."

"Just the way you used to threaten to run off to sea if your mother
objected to any of your whims. You are not changed in that respect,
though you are in others. You had great plans and projects once,
Charlie, and now you seem to be contented with being a 'jack of all
trades and master of none'".

"Boyish nonsense! Time has brought wisdom, and I don't see the sense of
tying myself down to one particular thing and grinding away at it year
after year. People of one idea get so deucedly narrow and tame, I've
no patience with them. Culture is the thing, and the sort one gets by
ranging over a wide field is the easiest to acquire, the handiest to
have, and the most successful in the end. At any rate, it is the kind I
like and the only kind I intend to bother myself about."

With this declaration, Charlie smoothed his brow, clasped his hands over
his head, and, leaning back, gently warbled the chorus of a college song
as if it expressed his views of life better than he could:

"While our rosy fillets shed
Blushes