Year: 1878

Mac Mel hourished. Jenny saved the pennies, and the extravagances were 1n behalf of little Miss Jean, whose waxen face could only be coaxed into glow by the aid of some sort of melody. And the older she grew, the wider her taste expanded, so that after while a new piano was maneuvred and engineered up the stairs, and almost filled Jenny's little parlor Many familiar knick- knack had to go to the wall or be tucked cut of sight to make room for this mountain of mahogany. ..

 $ It's burnin' shame,'' said one of the boys, ''to give up the dear old fd- dle for the jinglin' of them ivory pup pets. Every new piece of Miss Jean,s sets fellows teeth on edge. One can't have any more fun at Macs; he's hung up his fiddle and his bow; and for my part I'm sick to death of the infant phe- nomenon."

 So were the rest of the cronies-they fell off one by one, and in few years none were left but Shiel he, poor fel- low, sat night after night with his head up against the wall, the music going in one ear and out of the other, till it seemed to him he had become simply a sort of hollow melancholy tube for the accommodation of echoes.

 What could Mac do, who had alone kept pace with his daughter, and appre- ciated to the full her remarkable pro- fc1ency-what could he do but long for larger, fuller, prouder scope for her? The ceilings were low in their humble floor the acoustic properties were en- tirely wanting in that cramped but cozy vicinity. Alas alas the nest was all too small for its full-fedged inmates, and the neighborhood was not what it had been. Macs business increased day by day. He was getting to be quite moneyed man, and really an authority in music. Busts of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and all the rest stared poor Shiel in the face. Look which way he would, the sightless balls of these old masters followed him.

 And Jenny, finding that the very walls of the old nest were almost bursting asunder, consented at last to move into fine new house in new neighborhood, and have new furniture and new clothes, new church and ministers a new butcher and baker, and, worst of all, some very superior and excellent servants, who took the whole establishment out of her hands, and left her high and dry upon the banks of prosperity, with nothing to do but to enjoy herself. And all at once she began to be most miserable. MT. Mac Neil and his remarkable daughter stepped out of their nest as the blithest, most sagacious of birds, left the worth less tenement that has served it's pur- pose, and began forthwith to scratch and peck and scramble for themselves in the most natural and praiseworthy way. But poor Jenny stumbled at every step, and grew more featherless and forlorn as the years went by. Pretty she was yet, far prettier than her daughter, but this did not seem to win for her the admira- tion she most coveted. Poor Jenny would have gladly taken the ponderous form and heavy features of Mrs. De- lancy We're, could she have ga1ned thereby that lady's severely critical taste and talent, or the long bony neck of Mrs. Perry, if it could still hold those won derfully high notes which MT. Mac Neil so admired. Dowhat she would, the old accent that was once so dear to her hus- bands ear still chung to her. ..

 Don't say yere for 'here, Jenny, !" expostulated MT. Mac Neil "and I'd rather do without anything at the table than the letter b, except when it's one letter too many"

 So Jenny began to speak only from sheer necessity. She never could please her husband any more, do what she would, and didn't care to find favor in the sight of others. It began to be ap- parent to Jenny that she was clog and burden to her husband and her daughter-nay to the whole world in which they delighted to ive-and there came time when she resolved no longer to be the stumbling block to their popu- larity.

 There was a mosuicGle at the house that night, and all the doors were open. The halls were filled with flowers, some of them brought from the florist in tubs of wide dimensions and Jenny, in a plain black silk, crouched behind one of these while MT. Mac Neil was bringing his daughter down the stairs and into the crowded parlors. Macs nose was high in the air he was dressed in the finest of broadcloth, while the musical prodigy, who was now well-grown young woman, swept along in rustling white silk that the dress maker wouldn't let Jenny do even the cording for. On they went, and Jenny's heart swelled big with pride, then sank with modification, for two fine ladies near her, leaning upon the arms of good-natured look ing gentleman, began all at once to cavil at poor Jenny, who had never in her whole life said evil of anybody.

 "The mamma appears to be invisi- ble, {" said one of them. "'Ehey say she is shut up in the coal hole upon these occasions; and no wonder, when one thinks of the blunders of the poor crea- ture.

 Perhaps she's in the kitchen" said the other "I have heard that is where MT. Mac Neil first found her."

 

 Then up spoke the good-natured looking gentleman, and said that if she could make a good ragout there, hel