ghtened
perceptibly from this date, and was able to take a healthy interest in
certain match-games of base-ball and la-crosse in neighboring cities,
which he attended with Mr. Ketchum and Sir Robert, who, besides these
diversions, had to visit the prisons and all the public schools, and to
gather a mass of information in regard to these two subjects, with
criminal and educational statistics, systems, theories, that had to be
examined, sifted, recorded in the diary with the pains, study, and
reverence for facts that characterized every entry made in it. Meanwhile,
quite an intimacy had sprung up between the ladies of the Ketchum and
Brown households, or rather the existing one soon embraced the
Englishwomen. Mrs. Sykes and Miss Noel were struck by a number of things
in the latter establishment.

"Do you suppose that _all_ American households are organized in this
extraordinary, miscellaneous way, so as to include, besides the head of
the house, his wife and children, all sorts of relatives, outsiders, and
strangers?" said Mrs. Sykes to Miss Noel. "Mrs. De Witt told me, quite as
a matter of course, that the sister of her husband's first wife lived with
them, though she was away when we were there. And look at the Ketchums and
the Browns. It is most remarkable. Why do they do it, I wonder? I must
really ask about it, how it ever came about. And on such an extraordinary
basis, too! Only fancy, that poor, thread-paper creature, Mr. Brown's
daughter, has married badly and come back to her father with a troop of
children; and she married in opposition to his wishes, and she hasn't a
farthing of her own; and yet she seems to have no proper sense of her
position whatever. She does nothing to make herself useful and get her
living, but sits up in her bedroom, rocking and sewing, all the day long.
She bids her father buy this and that for the children, just as though
they were not actually beggars, dependent upon him for shelter and every
mouthful. She meddles in household matters to any extent, giving the
servants orders, having fires made, and even the dinner-hour changed to
suit her convenience; and one would think she was mistress there. I wonder
she dares do it. Yet, so far from being sat upon or put in her place, I
heard Mr. Brown tell Bijou the other day, when some little disagreement
took place between them, that she must let her "poor sister" have
everything to suit herself, and do her best to make her happy and
contented