THE VISIT OF THE WASHERMAN. 
■was in or out. If the former, of course the shoes 
were there ; if the latter, the slippers. This state of 
matters was as a general rule ; but, as, to all general 
rules, there are occasional exceptions, so also in this 
case, it once happened, that both a pair of shoes and 
also slippers were on the usual spot. The boy, on 
taking his customary peep, and seeing both pairs stand- 
ing where he expected to perceive one, very natu- 
rally felt somewhat put out as to the correct result of 
his observation, so he went to the bed- room door, 
which opened out the back-verandah, stooped down, 
and applied his eye to the keyhole. The real state 
of matters was, that master had, without shoes or 
slippers, in his stocking soles, gone into his bedroom, 
and lain down on the couch, and, just as the boy 
was peeping through the keyhole, had got up, and 
was proceeding through the sitting-room, into the 
back- verandah, in order to call out for a light to 
his pipe ; and so it happened, that, just a^ he 
reached the back-door, his eyes caught the boy in 
a most peculiar position, so : — He was bending forward 
both his hands resting on his knees, the lower ex- 
tremity of his back protruding well out, his eye close 
up to the keyhole of thp door. In this position he 
appeared quite fixed, seemingly quite at a loss how to 
fathom this very unusual mystery, for no doubt he 
saw that the couch was empty, and, as far as he could 
scan, the whole bedroom too, and he was perfectly 
certain master was neither in the sitting-room nor in 
the verandah, and, yet strange to say, both his shoes 
and slippers were there ! A wicked thought flashed 
through master’s mind. Quickly and softly he returned 
to the bedroom by the same way he had come out, 
and as he passed by the office, he took a small glass 
syringe from the medicine chest, which was in fine 
working order, having just been very recently in use, 
and, as back luck (for the boy) would have it, a tea- 
cup, with a strong solution of bluestone (blue vi- 
triol), was standing close at hand. He placed the 
point of the syringe into this solution, into which 
a quantity of it was sucked up ; then, in order to 
see it worked all right, with the tip of his thumb 
the syringe was suddenly compressed, sending out 
at the point a jerk of the solution, proving he was 
no novice in working the instrument which was 
again filled, full as it would hold. He then ^ steps 
Swiftly and softly into the bedroom, applies the point 
of the syringe to the keyhole, and compresses his thumb 
with great force, the immediate result of which was 
— a loud scream, a rush, then a great silence, and 
as silence in the kitchen was such a very unusual 
hing, he thought it would be a pity to interrupt it, 
