ply.

"Are you deaf, stupid? don't you hear me speaking to you?--where did you
get that writing-desk?"

Still I did not answer.

"Sulky, eh? I shall have to lick him before long, I see. Here you,
what's your name? Fairlegh, did your grand-mother give you that
writing-desk?"

"No," replied I, "my sister Fanny gave it to me the day before I left
home."

"Oh, you have got a sister Fanny, have you? how old is she, and what is
she like?"

"She is just thirteen, and she has got the dearest little face in the
world," answered I, earnestly, as the recollection of her bright blue
eyes and sunny smile came across me.

~29~~"How interesting!" sighed Coleman; "it quite makes my heart beat;
you could not send for her, could you?"

"And she gave you that desk, did she?--how very kind of her," resumed
Lawless, putting the poker in the fire.

"Yes, was it not?" said I, eagerly. "I would not have any harm happen to
it for more than I can tell."

"So I suppose," replied Lawless, still devoting himself to the poker,
which was rapidly becoming red-hot. "Have you ever," continued he, "seen
this new way they have of ornamenting things? encaustic work, I think
they call it:--it's done by the application of heat, you know."

"I never even heard of it," said I.

"Ah! I thought not," rejoined Lawless. "Well, as I happen to understand
the process, I'll condescend to enlighten your ignorance. Mullins, give
me that desk."

"Don't touch it," cried I, bounding forward to the rescue; "I won't
have anything done to it."

[Illustration: page29 Ornamenting a Writing Desk]

My design was, however, frustrated by Cumberland and Lawless, who, both
throwing themselves upon me at the same moment, succeeded, despite
my struggles, in forcing me into a chair, where they held me, while
Mullins, by their direction, with the aid of sundry neckcloths, braces,
etc., tied me hand and foot; Coleman, who attempted to interfere in my
behalf, receiving a push which sent him reeling across the room, and a
hint that if he did not mind his own business he would be served in the
same manner.

Having thus effectually placed me _hors de combat_, Lawless took
possession of my poor writing-desk, and commenced tracing on the top
thereof, with the red-hot poker, what he was pleased to term a "design
from the antique," which consisted of a spirited outline of that
riddle-loving female the Sphinx, as she appeared when dressed in
top-boots and a wide-awake, and r