Our Odd-men 



behaviour, your disgraceful behaviour, of 



last niorht." 



There was a pause, then, " I say Miss 



Mary," he said, ''you baln't angry with 



old Sprlght, be you ? " 



"Oh, don't come talking to me, I'm too 



busy," she said, turning over the leaves of 



her book. 



" I suppose you ain't got nothing for 



me to fetch or carry ? " he persisted very 



humbly. 



''Well, there, go along," said my sister, 



"and carry that hamper to Mr. Smith at 

 the other end of the town." And the poor 

 fellow, quite radiant now, snatched It up and 

 bolted for the door with the words, "You 

 see if old Sprlght can't run ! " 



People often said to me, " I cannot 

 imagine what induces your father to keep 

 that drunken rascal hanging about his 

 office. " He Is a disgrace to the place ! " 



_ " Keep him," I laughed, " we don't keep 

 him : but he won't go — he won't leave us, 

 and besides he's not altogether a rascal." 

 And so it was, he was never really engaged 

 by my father as a porter, but he was 

 always working for us one way or another, 

 lifting weights that the others shrank from, 

 running distances that would have killed 

 most men, doing the marketing for my 



