icted state, "is you lost
your senses?"

"N-n-no, sir," she stammered.

"For shame!" I scolded. "T' call me so!"

"Daniel," my uncle interjected, "volume II., page 24. '_A distinguished
politeness o' manners._'"

By this my tutor was vastly amused, and delightedly watched us, his
twinkling glance leaping from face to face.

"I'll not have it, Judy!" I warned her. "You'll vex me sore an you
does it again."

The maid would not look up.

"Volume II., page 25," my uncle chided. "Underlined by Sir Harry.
'_An' this address an' manner should be exceedin'ly respeckful._'"

"Judy!" I implored.

She ignored me.

"An you calls me that again, maid," I threatened, in a rage, "you'll
be sorry for it. I'll--"

"Holy Scripture!" roared my uncle, reaching for his staff. "'_Spare
the rod and spoil the child._'"

I was not to be stopped by this. 'Twas an occasion too promising in
disaster. She had sirred me like a house-maid. Sir? 'Twas past
believing. That Judith should be so overcome by fine feathers and a
roosterly strut! 'Twas shocking to discover the effect of my uncle's
teaching. It seemed to me that the maid must at once be dissuaded from
this attitude of inferiority or my solid hope would change into a
dream. Inferiority? She must have no such fancy! Fixed within her mind
'twould inevitably involve us in some catastrophe of feeling. The
torrent of my wrath and supplication went tumbling on: there was no
staying it. My uncle's hand fell short of his staff; he sat stiff and
agape with astonished admiration: perceiving which, my tutor laughed
until my hot words were fair extinguished in the noise he made. By
this my uncle was set laughing: whence the infection spread to me. And
then Judith peeped at me through the cluster of buttercups with the
ghost of a roguish twinkle.

"I'll call you Dannie," says she, slyly--"t' save you the lickin'!"

"Daniel," cries my uncle, delighted, "one slug-shot. Box with the star
t' the box with the cross. Judy," says he, "move aft alongside o' that
there roast veal!"

'Twas the beginning and end of this seeming difference of station....

* * * * *

John Cather took us in hand to profit us. 'Twas in the learning he
had--'twas in every genteel accomplishment he had himself mastered in
the wise world he came from--that we were instructed. I would have
Judy for school-fellow: nor would I be denied--not I! 'Twas the plan I
made when first I