an she over the pointed compliment to her.

Addressing Mike, the lady said:

"You have a wonderfully fine tenor voice: do you know that, Mike?"

"I do _now_, since yersilf has told me, though ye make me blush."

"Are you travelling alone?"

"Yes, Miss; I'm on me way to jine me dad and mither, which the same live
in the State of Maine, of which I suppose yersilf has heerd."

"Have you had any instruction in music or the cultivation of your voice?"

"The only insthrumint on which I can play is the jewsharp, and folks that
hear me always kindly requists me to have done as soon as I begin. As to
me v'ice, the cultivation I've resaved has been in shouting at the cows
when they wint astray or at the pigs whin they broke out of the stye."

"How would you like to become an opera singer, Mike?"

He recoiled, and, though he knew the meaning of the question, he asked:

"And phwat does ye mane by 'opera'?"

"Ah, you know, you sly boy. I am sure that after a few years of training
you can make your fortune on the operatic stage."

The assurance did not appeal to Mike. He must find some excuse for
declining an offer which would have turned the heads of most persons.

"It is very kind of you, leddy, and I'm sorry I can't accipt, as Terence
Gallagher said whin the mob invited him out to be hanged."

"And why not?"

"Ye see, me dad, if he lives long enough will be eighty-odd years owld,
and me mither is alriddy that feeble she can hardly walk across the floor
of our cabin, and I am naaded at home to take care of the two."

"Well, let that go for the present. I wish you to come and see me
to-morrow at ten o'clock. Will you do so?"

"How can I refoos?" asked Mike, who would have been glad to back out.
"Who is it that I shall ask fur whin I vinture on this part of the boat?"

She gave him her name, thanked him for the meeting and bade him good
night. Mike donned his cap and returned to his acquaintances, to whom he
told a portion of what had taken place.

Dressed in his best, his obdurate hair smoothed down by dousing it in
water and threading a brush many times through it, and spotlessly clean,
Mike with many misgivings crossed the bridge the next morning into the
more favored section of the steamer. He did not have to make inquiries
for the lady, for she stood smilingly at the end of the first class
promenade awaiting him. She extended her dainty gloved hand, and the lad,
who had braced himself for the ordeal, had shed