him--possibly
because he and they did not agree in politics, and their assumption
that Thaddeus's party was entirely made up of the ignorant and self-
seeking was galling to him. "Why isn't dinner ready?"

"Mary says that an hour after we left cook got a telegram from New
York saying that her brother was dying, and she had to go right
off."

"I thought that brother was dying last week?"

"No; that was her mother's brother, he got well. This is another
person entirely."

"Naturally," snapped Thaddeus. "But next time we get a cook let's
have one whose relatives are all dead, or in the old country, where
they can't be reached. I'm tired of this business."

"Well, you shouldn't be cross with me about it, Thad," said Bessie,
with a teary look in her eyes. "I have to put up with a great deal
more of it than you have, only you never know of it. Why, I've
cooked one-half of my own luncheons in the last month."

"And the dinners, too, I'll wager," growled Thaddeus.

"No; she's always got home for dinner heretofore."

"Well, we'll keep a record-book for her, too, then. And we'll be
generous with her. We'll allow her just as I was allowed in
college--twenty-five per cent. in cuts. If she has twenty-five and
a fifth per cent., she goes."

"I don't think I understand," said Bessie.

"Well, we'll put it this way: There are thirty days in a month.
That means ninety meals a month. If she cooks sixty-seven and a
half of them she can stay; if she fails to cook the other twenty-two
and a half she can stay; but woe be unto her if she slips up by even
so little as a millionth part of the sixty-eighth!"

"I don't see how you can manage the half part of it."

"We'll leave that to her," said Thaddeus, firmly; "and, what is
more, we'll put John and Mary on the same basis, and Dennis we won't
have on any basis at all. A man who will take advantage of his
brother's absence at a wake to black the shoes of that brother's
only employer with stove-polish is not the kind of a man I want to
have around."

"It will be a very good plan," said Bessie, "for all except Mary.
Her absences she cannot well avoid. She has to go to church."

"How many times a week does she have to go?" queried Thaddeus.

"She is required to go to confession."

"Well, let her reform, and then she'll have nothing to go to
confession for. I don't believe that's where she goes, either. I
notice that one-half those evenings she takes off, permittin