ther-in-law--was a weaver by trade, whose
baskets the public did not appreciate, and whose manner of cutting
grass in the early fall and of tending furnace later on was
atrocious.

"If I could hire that man in summer," Thaddeus remarked one night
when John's substitute had "fixed" the furnace so that the library
resembled a cold-storage room, "I think we could make this house an
arctic paradise. He seems to have a genius for taking warmth by the
neck and shaking enough degrees of heat out of it to turn a
conflagration into an iceberg. I think I'll tell the Fire
Commissioners about him."

"He can't compare with John," was Bessie's answer to this.

"No. I think that's why John sends him here when he is off riding
in carriages in honor of his deceased chums. By the side of Dennis,
John is a jewel."

"John is very faithful with the furnace," said Bessie. "He never
lets it go down. Why, day before yesterday I turned off every
register in the house, and even then had to open all the windows to
keep from suffocating."

"But that wasn't all John, my dear," said Thaddeus. "The Weather
Bureau had something to do with it. It was a warm day for this
season of the year, anyhow. If John could combine the two
businesses of selling coal and feeding furnaces, I think he would
become a millionaire. And, by-the-way, I think you ought to speak
to him, Bess, about the windows. Since you gave him the work of
window-cleaning to do, it is evident that he thinks I have nothing
to say in the matter, for he persistently ignores my requests that
he clean them in squares as they are made, and not rub up a little
circle in the middle, so that they look like blocks of opalescent
glass with plate-glass bulls'-eyes let into the centre. Look at
them now."

"Dennis did that. John had to go to Mount Vernon with his militia
company to-day."

"Dennis is well named, for his name is--But never mind. I'll credit
John with his twelfth day off in four weeks."

From John to Bridget, in the matter of days off, was an easy step,
though such was Bessie's consummate diplomacy that Thaddeus would
probably have continued in ignorance of the extent to which Bridget
absented herself had they not both taken occasion one day to visit
some relatives in Philadelphia, and on their return home at night
found no dinner awaiting them.

"What's the matter now?" asked Thaddeus, a little crossly, perhaps,
for visiting relatives in Philadelphia irritated