ute people as 'the sheriff of the county,' he was only a common
hangman?"

"Oh, was that the man? All I said was that if he had been _my_
ancestor instead of yours, you would have called him a hangman. He
_was_ sheriff of the county, wasn't he, dear?"

"So I have been taught to believe."

"'My ancestor, the high sheriff,' won't sound badly at all," she said,
jauntily.

"Especially if we can tone up the old gentleman's game eye a little."

Josephine's face expressed open admiration. "You are a genius and a
duck," she exclaimed; then, after a reflective pause, she murmured,
"Very likely he met with an accident just before he was painted."

"Yes, dear. Consequently, if the eye can't be improved by means of the
best modern artistic talent, the least we can do is to put a shade over
it."

This waggish remark seemed to be lost on Josephine. She wore a
far-away look as though her thoughts were following some fancy which
had appealed to her. She did not deign to take me into her confidence
at the moment, but a fortnight later I happened to come upon her in
close confabulation with a very clever, rising, local artist, over this
same portrait of my great-grandfather Plunkett.

"Fred," she said, nonchalantly, "Mr. Binkey thinks he can do something
to this which will improve it."

"I shouldn't suppose that it was easy to improve upon nature," I
remarked, oracularly.

Josephine blushed a little, but she replied, with sturdy decision, "Oh,
but he never could have looked like that. His eyes must have been
alike, Fred. Mustn't they, Mr. Binkey?"

"I should imagine," said our rising local artist, with a meditative
squint at the picture, "that the fault was in the technique rather than
in the subject-matter of the portrait."

"Precisely," said Josephine, triumphantly. "Besides, Mr. Binkey says
it needs varnishing."

What can one say in the teeth of professional authority? When
great-grandfather and great-grandmother Plunkett came back to us at the
end of a month, they were newly varnished and in bright, tasteful
frames, and no one would ever have detected that the old gentleman's
eyes did not resemble each other closely. Since then I have often
heard Josephine declare her gratitude that she did not allow any
squeamishness to prevent her from giving the children and people
generally the correct impression of a man who was eminent in his day
and generation. Indeed, I have heard her call the attention of
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