Bingham had been in India together, | such a gloomy light. I had no doubt and he had made a curry that but, we could get some woman from the no!-it is useless to describe the village to cook and "do" for us, and burning tortures I suffered after one we had better walk over before dinner mouthful. and see.

I think I must have the temper of The captain grumbled a good deal, an archangel, for when the captain and I had to smooth down a great many looked at his watch, and said it was objections. But he consented to go at time for Jeremiah to be seeing about those seeds, I interfered, and said I didn't want a death in the house quite so soon. Sneade had walked twentyfour miles already, without counting his journeys to the brook, and I thought he looked pale.

Bingham and I almost quarrelled over this, but I was firm. I was sorry for Sneade, and told the captain so; but he retorted that he thought sympathy was rather wasted on Jeremiah. He had got an uncommonly comfortable berth, and knew on which side his bread was buttered. He said Sneade would go through fire and water for his (the captain's) sake; and when I said if the brook stood for the water, and the curry we had just eaten for the fire, no doubt he was right, he grew absolutely furious.

Next week I saw an alteration in Sneade's manner which delighted me. He was always perfectly respectful, but he wore a sullen look, and went about his herculean labors in a dull, dispirited manner; and about ten days after we had arrived Bingham came into my room one morning with an ashen face.

He bent over me, and said in a hoarse whisper,

"Sneade has deserted !"

PART II.

I FANCY Bingham had some vague idea of a court-martial in his mind when he hissed these fatal words into my ear. I hadn't thought myself that Sneade would go off quite so suddenly, but I couldn't resist a fit of laughter that made Bingham furious. He said that was always the way. All unpleasantness of this kind fell on him, and he didn't like it. He would now be in a most responsible position. I said that there was no need to look at things in

last, and we set out. We might just as well have saved ourselves the trouble, however. Our fame had preceded us, and not a soul would consent to come and share our fortunes in the "house o' cards," as they disrespectfully termed the bungalow. We offered fabulous sums, as we recognized the desperate situation we were in; but in vain. We could tempt none of the daughters of Eve by our brilliant offers. We were exhausted and dispirited after this failure, and went and had dinner at the Blue Pig. Bingham wanted to remain at the Blue Pig indefinitely, and desert the bungalow till we should find somebody brave enough to attend to our comforts. I vetoed this, and bore Bingham off from the convivial parlor of the little inn, back to the bungalow and stern reality.

We were laden with parcels, as we had thought it just as well to do the week's shopping when we were in the village, and were dreadfully tired when we got home. I understood at once why two sofas would have been desirable, but Bingham looked so miserable that I could not bear to make a fuss.

We went without tea that night, partly because we were too tired to bother about it, and partly because Punch had drunk up the milk in our absence. He had also dug up the meat he had buried a week previously, and placed it in an unpleasantly prominent position on the dining-room table. He seemed so very pleased at having worked so hard that I really could not scold him.

We had beer and bread and butter for supper, and Bingham groaned as he dragged himself to the table to partake of this depressing meal. He went to bed in the lowest spirits, but when we came down to breakfast the next morn

He

ing he was quite a different man.
said we must make the best of things,
and divide the work equally. As I had
cooked the eggs for breakfast and got
up early, he would make the beds and
see to the dinner. I watched him make
the beds through the keyhole. His
plan was excessively simple. He shook
the pillow violently, replaced it, and
drew up the clothes as flat as he could
over it. It looked quite nice and ship-
shape on the outside, but I had to make
mine again before I slept.

It was all very well for Bingham to make such a point of cooking the dinner, but it didn't turn out as well as Sneade's, after all. He insisted on my going off to fish in the brook to get some salmon trout in for supper, and he shut himself up alone in the kitchen to commence operations.

It was raining a little all the time I was out. I caught some fine fishalso a beastly cold. Other people may have colds, of course, but I don't believe mortal man has suffered from them as I have. I knew I should have to take to my bed if it didn't disappear before night, and then Bingham would have to wait upon me. Ye gods and little fishes, defend us! I raced home and changed my things quickly, sneezing violently all the time. Oh, I was in for it, beyond a doubt. I peeped in at the kitchen door before I went into the dining-room. There was Bingham, very hot and red in the face, stooping over the fire, stirring something in a saucepan. He had got out every cooking utensil that had been forbidden to the unfortunate Sneade, and had also unearthed Mrs. Beeton's "Book of Household management," with which volume my aunt had kindly provided

us.

66

Here, you come and stir!" cried Bingham eagerly. "It's deuced hot work, I can tell you."

"What's for dinner?" I asked curiously.

"Mutton cutlets, tomatoes, and rice pudding," said Bingham, with some pride; "and the stuff you are stirring is gravy."

"Where are the cutlets ?" I asked. "In the oven with the tomatoes," answered Bingham. "This is such a fool of a book that I chucked it away, and I'm doing things my own way now."

I knew cutlets were not generally baked, but I didn't say so. I also knew that it did not take a whole pound of the best Carolina rice to make a small milk pudding. Here also I was silent. I finished stirring Bingham's lumpy gravy, and then I went and laid the table.

SO

It was rather a superfluous thing to do, as even Bingham didn't eat much that day. The rice pudding was solid that we could have thrown it from one end of the room to the other if we had not been afraid of bringing down the bungalow about our ears. We gave the cutlets to Punch, who took them to his favorite cemetery and interred them at once. Contrary to his usual custom, he never dug them up again.

We lighted pipes after dinner and drew lots as to who should wash up. It fell to Bingham, who said that he shouldn't bother about the confounded things just then. We had got plenty of extra clean plates, thank goodness! I suggested that this plan resembled the course taken by the March Hare and the Hatter in Alice's famous teaparty; but Bingham was deep in his cookery-book, and didn't hear me.

"Now, look here," he said, after a pause. "Just listen to this. My people used to have a jolly pudding at "How are you getting on, old chap?" | home called Exeter' pudding. I I asked, looking round the door. wrote and asked the name before I came down here on purpose. And this is how it is made: - Ingredients. — 10 oz. bread-crumbs, 4 oz. sago, 7 oz. finely chopped suet, 6 oz. moist sugar, the rind of half a lemon, pint of rum, 7 eggs, 4 tablespoonfuls of cream, 4 small sponge cakes, 2 oz. of ratafias, lb. of jam. Put the

I took the sauce ladle, which he had been using obediently and bent over the decoction, while Bingham sat down on the edge of the table with an air of relief, and wiped his forehead.

I interrupted him here, and asked if there wasn't a more simple pudding we could have.

Bingham turned over a few pages, and began to read again :

Then he laid the book down and turned to me.

"There you are, old chap," he said. "Yes, there I am," I answered grimly. "It's certainly one of the sim"Nesselrode Pudding.-Ingredients. plest means of curing a cold that ever I -40 chestnuts, 1 lb. of sugar, 1 pint of heard of." cream, the yolk of 12 eggs, 1 glass of Maraschino, 1 oz. of candied citron, 2 oz. currants, 2 oz. stoned raisins, pint of whipped cream, 3 eggs."

I entreated Bingham to put the book down. I said I thought his mind was getting unhinged, and I couldn't imagine why my aunt had put such injudicious literature in his way. I didn't feel up to talking much, however. I felt queer and shivery, and sneezed so many times that I at last woke up Bingham (who had gone to sleep on the sofa), and said I was going to bed, and he could bring me some hot whiskey and water. When he saw I was really seedy, the captain grew quite motherly. He turned to the end of the "Book of Household Management" to find out what he ought to do for me, but he got mixed up in the chapter on the " Rearing and Management of Children" before he found the right place.

"If we only had the moon raisins and the rum and the sugar-candy and the white wine and the liquorice in the house," pursued Bingham, "I could make it for you at once. As it is I shall make you some linseed tea. Ι know there's some of that stuff here I saw it the other day."

"Bingham, for Heaven's sake," I began, “don't

But Bingham and "Mrs. Beeton" had retired to the kitchen together, so I dragged myself to bed, in the devout hope that Bingham would not be able to find a receipt for linseed tea.

My wish was more than fulfilled. "Mrs. Beeton was silent on the subject; but the captain was a man of an inventive turn of mind. In half an hour's time he came to my room with a steaming basin, which he set down on a chair.

"Now you've got to drink this right off," said Bingham authoritatively, sit

Then he read out loud, in a trium-ting down on the end of my bed. "It's phant voice :

"To cure a cold. Put a large teacupful of linseed with a quarter of a pound of sun raisins"-("What the devil are sun raisins?" ejaculated | Bingham) — "and two ounces of stick liquorice into two quarts of soft water, and let it simmer over the fire till reduced to one quart; add to it a quarter of a pound of pounded sugar-candy, a tablespoonful of old rum, and a tablespoonful of white wine, vinegar, or lemon-juice. The rum and vinegar should be added as the decoction is taken; for if they are put in at first the whole soon becomes flat, and less efficacious. The dose is half a pint, made warm, on going to bed, and a little may be taken when the cough is troublesome. The worst cold is generally cured by this remedy in two or three days; and if taken in time it is considered infallible."

rather thick, but it smells all right.”

I sat up and looked at the stuff. Then I turned to the captain.

'Bingham," I said solemnly, "I am grateful to you—but this is not tea; it is a poultice !"

worse than ever. steaming hot tea!

I passed a, fiendish night, and awoke buckets of water up and down. He Oh, for a cup of launched everything into the stream, and sat down on a stone and watched. One teacup floated away altogether, and probably in time reached the sea; the forks sank to the bottom, and Bingham used awful language as he tucked up his sleeves to fish them out again. He couldn't get the grease off the plates anyhow, and got fearfully mad over them.

At nine I heard Bingham roll out of bed. At ten he appeared with my breakfast.

He had been unable to get the fire to burn, and had used up every stick in the house. He had ambitiously cooked some bacon and made some toast. I drank my tea languidly. The water hadn't boiled, but that was a minor detail. The chill was off it, and that was the great thing. The bacon was black on one side and white on the other, and the toast had faint grey bars across its leathery surface.

I don't know how matters would have ended with us if that archangel Sneade hadn't reappeared. He sneaked into the house at dusk, and asked me if I'd like to have him back. He said he was sorry to have caused us any inconvenI got up after this meal was over. Iience, but his health had been giving couldn't lie in bed and let Bingham way for some time, and if he was "took slave himself to skin and bone for my on" again things must please be arsake. He made me some lumpy arrow-ranged differently.

root at eleven o'clock. His method of Like to have him back! I could doing so was wonderfully simple. He have fallen on the ground and licked poured warm water on a tablespoonful of the powder, and added some milk and sugar to it. I sent him to the kitchen for a spoon, and threw it out of the window while he was gone. I hate hurting any one's feelings.

Bingham stated that after dinner he was going to wash up. It was a bad habit to let things accumulate; it made the kitchen look so untidy. He would fry the trout early, and we would have bread and jam for pudding, and then we could start fair.

I agreed wearily. I felt an utter disinclination for food, and when I saw Bingham plunging the trout, uncleansed, into a frying-pan full of lukewarm lard, I swore that not a morsel should pass my lips. I silently went and put some potatoes in the oven, and dined simply off the fruits of the earth. As for Punch, he took to hunting in desperation on his own account, and brought home a jolly little rabbit as his share towards our unhappy housekeeping. I thought it was rather thoughtful of him, but Bingham looked upon it as quite an insult.

The captain took all the plates and knives and forks down to the brook in a large clothes-basket, to wash. He said it would be easier than always carting

the dust from off his boots. I said I'd see that he was treated properly. I'd take care that he should have a teacup all to himself, and not be obliged to eat all his meals with a clasp-knife.

Sneade stipulated that he should not be sent to the village more than once a day, that he should have as many saucepans as he liked, and that he should not be expected to do any gardening. He was very bold with me, and I acceded to his every demand.

When Bingham appeared the scene was changed. Sneade was no longer a conqueror fixing his own terms, but a culprit sueing for mercy. I don't say that the captain wished to shoot Sneade with his own hand for desertion, but he intimated pretty plainly that he only let him off on account of his being an old retainer.

However he cleaned everything up, and cooked the supper, and made things comfortable once more.

I put my foot down for once in my life and talked to Bingham seriously on the subject of Sneade. I pointed out his own arrant selfishness and gross stupidity. I told him that unless Jeremiah was treated properly, that he and I would go off together, leaving the bungalow to darkness and to him.

Bingham was grave, but he took my first mentioned as a star by Hesiod, lecture very well on the whole. He who connects it with the dog days. even acknowledged that he might have These, according to Theon of Alexanbeen a little exacting. That had nothing to do with Sneade, however. It was his business to put up with it. There were very few men who would have taken him on again after the way he had behaved.

Like many other stars, Sirius has a considerable" proper motion " the face of the sky, amounting to about 1-3 seconds of arc per annum. Some irregularities in this proper motion led the astronomers Bessel, Peters, and Safford to the conclusion that the moProfessor Max Müller thinks that tion of Sirius was disturbed by the the Greek word seirios comes from the attraction of an invisible close comSanscrit svar or suonasirau. Sirius is panion revolving round it. From the