Rudder Grange.

Avas brought to us daily from tho abovementioned cottage by a little toddler who seemed just able to carry the small tin bucket which held a lacteal pint . If the urchin had been the child of rich parents , as Euphemia sometimes observed , he Avould have been in his nurse ' s arms—but being

poor , he Avas scarcely Aveaned before he began to carry milk around to other people , After I reached home came supper ancl the delightful evening hours , Avhen over my pipe ( I soon gave up cigarsas being too

, expensive ancl inappropriate , ancl took to a tall pipe and canaster tobacco ) Ave talked , and planned , ancl told each other our clay ' s experience . One of our earliest subjects of discussion ivas the name of our homestead . Euphemia

insisted that it should have a name . I Avas quite Avilling , but AVC found it no easy matter to select an appropriate title . I proposed a number of appellations intended to suggest the character of our home . Among these wore " Safe Ashore" "Firmly

, Grounded , " and some other names of that style , but Euphemia did not fancy any of them . She Avanted a suitable name , of course , she said , but it must be something that Avould soundlike a home and be . like

a boat . " Partitionville" she objected to , ancl "Gang-plank Terrace" did not suit her , because it suggested convicts going out to Avork , Avhich naturally Avas unpleasant . At last , after clays of talk ancl cogitation , Ave named our house " Rudder Grange . " To be sure , it Avasu ' t exactly a grange , but then it had such an enormous rudder

that the justice of that part of the title seemed to overbalance any little inaccuracy in the other portion . But Ave did not spend all our time in talking , An hour or two every evening was occupied in Avhat we called " fixing the bouse" ancl gradually tbe inside of our

, abode began to look like a conventional dwelling . We put matting on the floors ancl cheap but very pretty paper on the Avails . We added noAv a couple of chairs , ancl HOAV a table or something for the kitchen . Frequently we had company , and

our guests Avere ahvays charmed with Euphemia ' s cunning little meals The clear girl loved good eating so much that she could scarcely fail to be a good cook . We removed our bed to the extreme bow part

of the boat , and put up muslin curtains to separate it from the parlour . We Avorked hard , and Avere very happy . And thus the Aveeks passed on . In this delightful Avay of living , only one thing troubled us . We didn ' t save any money . There AA'ere so many little

things that Ave wanted , ancl so many little things that Avere so cheap , that I spent pretty much all I made , ancl that Avas far from the p hilosophical plan of living that I wished to follow .

We talked this matter over a great deal after Ave had lived in our new home for about a month , and we came at last to the conclusion that Ave Avould take a boarder . We had no trouble in getting a boarder , for Ave had a friend , a young man AVIIO Avas engaged in the flour businessAVIIO was

, very anxious to come and live Avith us . He had been to see us tAvo or three times , and had expressed himself charmed Avith our household arrangements . So Ave made terms Avith him . The carpenter partitioned off another room

, ancl our boarder brought his trunk ancl a large red velvet arm-chair , ancl took up his abode at " Rudder Grange . " We liked our boarder very much , but he had some peculiarities . I suppose everybody has them . Among other things , he

Avas very fond of telling us what Ave ought to do . He suggested more improvements in the first three clays of his sojourn Avith us than I had thought of since Ave commenced house-keeping . And what made the matter worsehis suggestions Avere

, generally very good ones . Had it been otherwise I might have borne his remarks more complacently , but to be continually told what you ought to do , ancl to know that you ought to do it , is extremely

annoying . He Avas very anxious that I should take off the rudder , Avhich was certainly useless to a boat situated as ours was , ancl make an ironing table of it . I persisted that the laws of symmetrical propriety required that the rudder should remain where it

was- —that the very name of our home would be interfered with b y its removal , but he insisted that " Ironing-table Grange" Avould be just as good a name , and that symmetrical propriety in such a case did not amount to a row of pins . The result was , that we did have the ironing table , ancl that Euphemia Avas