OF HARTING. 487 



conceivable household article not in frequent use, had 

 long been a subject of the master's occasional re- 

 monstrances, which fell upon Pen, as she ingenuously 

 admitted, "like water on a duck's back," and the 

 accumulation of unconsidered trifles still went on, until 

 at length a decidedly unpleasant smell became per- 

 ceptible in the lower part of the house. For several 

 days, Pen and her household were at a sad loss to 

 account for this, except on the theory that it pro- 

 ceeded from a dead rat in one of the rooms. Then 

 followed a general displacement of furniture and 

 taking up of carpets, doors and windows were set 

 open for the purpose of ventilation (it was in the sum- 

 mer season), and every nook and corner of the ground 

 floor (except the stair-closet) was carefully examined, 

 but in vain, the nuisance still remained undiscovered 

 and unabated. Pen's next resource would have been 

 to storm the study, but the master allowed her to con- 

 vince herself that there was nothing there to " offend 

 the nostril," and quietly left her to prosecute her re- 

 searches elsewhere. In the course of these, Pen was 

 eventually led by the nose to the closet under the 

 stairs, and, " Lor' a massy," she exclaimed, as a bright 

 thought suddenly struck her, " I shouldn't wonder 

 now if it's in this dratted closet, how stupid not to 

 think of that before ! " And so it was, for no sooner 

 had she opened it and looked in, than, hastily with- 

 drawing her head again and applying the corner of 

 her apron to her nose, she declared that the stench 

 inside was " fit to knock a body down." Without the 

 loss of another moment, the contents of the closet 

 were cleared out, and mop and broom was the order 

 of the day. " Thank goodness," was Pen's remark 

 the next morning, " its all right now, the nasty smell's 

 gone at last ; but there wasn't no dead rat after all, 

 and whatever it could be, I can't imagine." No, and 

 she never knew, but we were more fortunate, we learnt 

 from the master that, finding all his complaints as to 



