nting to one of the ink puddles which that hero
had made, "here's the same beastly mess again! Every Monday it's the
same--ink all over the place! Why on earth don't you keep your messes
to yourself?"

"That young 'un filled up to-day," said Crow, coolly pointing to me.

I was so astounded by this false charge that I could hardly speak. At
last I retorted, "I didn't; you know I didn't!"

"Yes, you did!" said Crow.

"I didn't fill up that pot; it was done before I got here."

"Don't tell lies!" said Crow.

"I'm not telling lies!" cried I.

"Yes, you are!" said Crow. "I'm ashamed of you!"

"Oh, it was you, was it?" demanded Mr Doubleday, turning to me; "then
just come and wipe it up. Look sharp!"

I was disposed to resist this piece of injustice to the utmost, but
somehow the morning of my arrival it would hardly look well to figure in
a row.

"I didn't do it," said I, in an agitated voice, "but I'll wipe it up."

"Look sharp about it, then!" said Doubleday, grinning at Wallop.

It is one thing to offer to wipe up an ink puddle, and quite another to
do it.

"Now then!" said Doubleday, as I stood doubtfully in front of the scene
of operation.

"I don't know," I faltered,--"I, that is--I haven't got anything I can
do it with."

"What! not got a handkerchief!" exclaimed the head clerk, in apparent
consternation.

"Yes; but I can't do it with that. Wouldn't some blotting--"

"Blotting-paper!--the firm's blotting-paper to wipe up his messes! What
do you think of that, all of you? Come, out with your handkerchief!"

Things looked threatening. I saw it was no use resisting. Even the
Imports were standing on their stools and looking over the screen. So I
took out my handkerchief and, with a groan, plunged it into the spilt
ink.

Doubleday and the clerks evidently appreciated this act of devotion, and
encouraged me with considerable laughter. My handkerchief and my hand
were soon both the colour of the fluid they were wiping up, and my frame
of mind was nearly as black.

"Now then," said Doubleday, "aren't you nearly done? See if there's any
gone down the crack there. Is there?"

I stooped down to inspect the crack in question, and as I did so Mr
Doubleday adroitly slipped his pen under my soaking handkerchief, and,
by a sudden jerk, lifted it right into my face.

At the same moment the door opened and Mr Barnacle entered! He looked
round for a moment sharply, and then, passing on to the