; that all the tables were equally and quickly accessible
from the serving-table and sideboard, and that it was no longer
necessary to go the whole length of the room to serve the upper table.
He tactfully did not refer to the improved appearance of the room.

"Well, as long as it ain't mere finikin," said the lady graciously, "and
seems to bring the folks and their vittles nearer together--we'll try
it to-day. It does look kinder CITYFIED--and I reckoned that was all the
good it was. But I calkilated you were goin' to check the crockery this
morning."

"It's done," said Reddy, smilingly handing her the account-book.

Mrs. Woodridge glanced over it, and then surveyed her new assistant.

"And you didn't find any plates that were dirty and that had to be sent
back?"

"Yes, two or three, but I cleaned them myself."

Mrs. Woodridge glanced at him with a look of approving curiosity, but
his eyes were just then seeking her daughter's for a more grateful
sympathy. All of which the good lady noted, and as it apparently
answered the unasked question in her own mind, she only uttered the
single exclamation, "Humph!"

But the approbation he received later at dinner, in the satisfaction
of his old companions with the new arrangement, had also the effect
of diverting from him the criticism he had feared they would make
in finding him installed as an assistant to Mrs. Woodridge. On the
contrary, they appeared only to recognize in him some especial
and superior faculty utilized for their comfort, and when the
superintendent, equally pleased, said it was "all Reddy's own idea," no
one doubted that it was this particular stroke of genius which gained
him the obvious promotion. If he had still thought of offering his
flirtation with Nelly as an excuse, there was now no necessity for any.
Having shown to his employers his capacity for the highest and lowest
work, they naturally preferred to use his best abilities--and he
was kept from any menial service. His accounts were so carefully and
intelligently rendered that the entire care of the building and its
appointments was intrusted to him. At the end of the week Mr. Woodridge
took him aside.

"I say, you ain't got any job in view arter you finish up here, hev ye?"

Reddy started. Scarcely ten days ago he had a hundred projects, schemes,
and speculations, more or less wild and extravagant, wherewith he was to
avenge and recoup himself in San Francisco. Now they were gone he knew