l him what an old fool he
made of himself in the morning, and to remove the heaviness from his
friend's heart by an hour of familiar chat.

"Fact is, Jerry," says he, "wife may as well hang up her fiddle about
me; can't make a whistle out of a pig's tail, man, I tell ye! She may
fuss up the young'un as much as she's a mind to, but it'll be labor lost
over an old chap like me. I feel more at home down here in the old
place, and a plaguy sight more comfortable, than I do with all the nice
fixins she's got together up yonder; and I'll tell you what it is,
Jerry, we'll have many a smoke and talk yet, while the women folks do up
their callin'. I've been once, and that's once too many, and it will
take a taut pull to get me at that business again;" and the old sailor
puffed away at his pipe, and congratulated himself in his firm
resolution not to be whiffled about so easily as heretofore by his
wife's ambitious whims.

A pretty time there was of it, though, when he reached home again, and
Mrs. Flin pumped out of him where he had been. "It's all of no use,
Jerold Flin," said she, "for me to be a strivin' and a strivin' to keep
up the honor of the house, and you continually running back to your low
associates." But seeing that her husband was not much affected by any of
her appeals she turned her aspirations to the boy, whose life she almost
teased out with her injunctions not to do this, for James Airly didn't,
and to be sure to do that, because James Airly did. You need not exert
yourself, Mrs. Flin, the boy's a "chip off the old block," and you can
not make him otherwise. If you'll only try to implant within him good
principles, and teach him that kindness of heart that always results in
a true courtesy, it will benefit him more than all the fashionable
notions you can gather from the external example of your neighbor
Airly's children, I can assure you. This life is too noble and too
dignified to be frittered away in vain attempts after a worthless
outside. There is a genuine refinement and polish that comes from a
strict adherence to the golden rule; this is what I would have you
impress upon Master Sammy.

CHAPTER XXX.

"How d'ye do, Nannie?" said young Flin, as he met the girl walking with
Dora. Sammy was on his way to school with his satchel on his arm, and
could only stop a minute; but he always did like Nannie Bates, and he
was glad to get an opportunity to tell her that he would see her
sometimes if his m