Nepenthe was just getting able to use her hands again, when Mrs. Pridefit went into the kitchen one morning to give her directions. "That's the hot water, and that's the cold," said she, putting her hand first on one faucet and then on the other, "and there is the boiler. There is a pump, from which the boiler is supplied. Up in the bath room is a tank; when that is full of water there is no danger, but if the tank is empty, and you should use up the hot water in the boiler, the boiler would burst." "Yes, ma'am," said Nepenthe, timidly. Now, every morning," continued Mrs. Pridefit, "you must pump plenty of water up into the tank, and that will last you all day. I a am going out this morning, and you can stand here by the sink and scour all these tins," and Mrs. Pridefit piled up pails, pans, and tin-ware of all sizes and description, all sadly in need of polishing. The hours moved slowly along-pints, quarts, and twoquarts, pails, funnels, and graters, were all assuming unwonted brilliancy as they lay on the table awaiting Mrs. Pridefit's arrival. "Only one large pail more to scour,' thought Nepenthe, as she bent her head over, and tried to remove the cover, which was pressed down very tight. There was a sudden whizz and report, and then, over neck, shoulder and arm, came the hot water, as Nepenthe rushed frightened back, while the angry water hissing and sissing, burst over the floor. "Oh!" said Mrs. Pridefit, coming in just then, for she had taken the key of the front basement door with her and had come in very quietly, as she thought to find what the girl was about, she might be up stairs rummaging. "Oh !" said she, shaking Nepenthe fiercely, "you've burst the boiler. There's fifty more dollars gone. This is the way you abuse my kindness. Out of my sight, you good-for-nothing creature; you ought to be in prison." Seizing poker and tongs Mrs. Pridefit, then rushed to the range and with all the skill, energy, and rapidity of which she was capable, poked and scraped and raked the fire out, dashing on cold water to extinguish the last lingering glowing coals. "Up stairs with you! Out of my sight, girl!" said she, giving Nepenthe another push out into the hall. With face flushed with fatigue, vexation and excitement, Mrs. Pridefit hurriedly ascended the stairs to assume some costume better fitted for removing the water from the kitchen floor, when a new and still more startling sight presented itself to her excited vision. The The bath-room was nearly flooded with water. basin was full and overflowing; towels, soaps and sponges, were swimming upon its swelling surface. Pomades, pumice stone and tooth powder were floating out into the hall, about to make their democratic way down Mrs. Pridefit's new Wilton stair carpet. No wonder the the tank was empty and the boiler dry. There was a faucet turned and the water must have been running off a long time, and the unwelcome truth forced itself upon Mrs. Pridefit's unwilling conviction that she herself had left the faucet turned, and carelessly forgotten to shut it off. The fault was hers, and hers alone. But after once making a charge, she would never apologize, never retract-it was not her nature. She tried to say to herself, that the girl might have looked, or examined, or prevented the catastrophe in some way, though she had positively ordered her not to leave the kitchen until she returned. John Pridefit never knew why or how the boiler burst -but he did know that he himself had that identical morning pumped the tank full, fearing the possibility of some accident. Three weeks of lonely, suffering days and painful nights, passed on. Though still sore and tender, Nepenthe began to use the lame arm and delicate hand. There was no boiler in the kitchen yet, and the pump was out of order, and though the weather was severely cold the big stone was moved off of the cistern in the yard and all the water used in Mrs. Pridefit's kitchen had to be drawn from this open cistern, by a pail attached to a rope. Mrs. Pridefit began to feel that six shillings a dozen was up an enormous price to pay for putting washing out, and when Monday morning came again, she thought Nepenthe could do it if she tried; so Nepenthe's little benumbed hands had drawn up five pails of water when the rope broke, and down went the pail. "Oh, dear me dear me!" cried the frightened Nepenthe, 'tis Mrs. Pridefit's new pail, with the gilt band on. What shall I do? What shall I do?" bending down and looking over into the cistern, and then came that fearful cramp she had so often in her right shoulder, ever since it was scalded. The wind blew violently, there was almost a hurricane; the next morning's newspapers reports told of high houses unroofed, tall trees prostrated and even persons thrown down by violence. There were two columns in the next morning's Herald filled with damages from the gale in different parts of the country. CHAPTER VII. MRS. PRIDEFIT'S INDIGNATION AND CONSTERNATION. "He who for all hast found a spot, Wind, waves, and tempest dread, GERHART. SUSAN was the oracle of the two sisters Simpson, and Maria never expressed an opinion, without ending by say ing "Shouldn't you think so, Susan ?" Seated in her pet corner by her back chamber window, in her comfortable rocking chair, Miss Susan was reading the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew from her mother's old Bible, and had just finished the twenty-fifth verse-"I was stranger, and ye took me in," when she paused suddenly, and exclaimed, "Hark! Maria, hark! Hark! I've heard it twice." a Isn't that a child's voice I hear? "I guess not," said Maria, who was a little deaf. It must be rags, or lemons, or soap fat." "No! no! up the sash. quick, Maria! tern!" There it is again!" said Miss Susan, throwing "It is in Mrs. Pridefit's back yard. Quick! See that old bonnet on the snow by the cis Miss Susan Simpson, though a lover of ease, could move quickly enough when occasion required, and tearing a board from the fence, she and Maria were soon in Mrs. Pridefit's yard. A little hand was holding tight the edge of a loose stone which projected over the cistern. There were no more screams- -the poor child was too much exhausted. "Keep hold of me, Maria," said Susan, seeing the little hand relaxing its grasp. "We must pull her up." Miss Susan's form was of masculine proportions, tall and muscular. With superhuman strength, she rescued the half-frozen, terrified child from her perilous position, and finding Mrs. Pridefit out on some morning expedition, carried the almost senseless girl into her own house, and laid her on her own bed. There, Susan Simpson," said she, while rubbing the girl's cold limbs. "You've done one good deed now, if you never did in your life before." Nepenthe was speechless for half an hour. It was an hour of rubbing and stimulating, before she was able to move. Her limbs were partly frozen, and she would not have lived many minutes longer in the water. About an hour later, Mrs. Pridefit stood at her door, ringing with all her might. She was getting quite impatient, though well protected from the cold by her mantilla, muff, and cuffs of Russian sable. "I declare I shall perish,' thought she, "if I stand here much longer. What can Nepenthe be about? I'll give her one good shaking when I get hold of her." "Let her ring a little," said Miss Maria. Down the stone steps at last, she impatiently flew to the basement door, where her succession of emphatic thumps waked no spirit from within, but burst open the thumb of her tightly-fitting new white kid. "The girl must be asleep," she exclaimed. "I'll give her one good shaking when I get hold of her, for keeping me waiting till I am tired to death. I shall have the neuralgia a month after this. It'll surely go to my heart now." Let her knock a little," said Miss Maria, peeping out of her front window. "It will do her good. She'd no business to set that young thing drawing water out of the cistern with that old rotten piece of rope, too, while she herself is all rigged up skylarking around town." Five minutes more, and Miss Simpson's Bridget, who'd had all her Irish sympathy enlisted in the tragedy, opened Mrs. Pridefit's front door, and told her, with true Irish pathos, the whole story. It was very provoking to Mrs. Pridefit that her neighbors. had interfered thus with her affairs, yet under the circumstances, they could hardly be blamed. "Tell Nepenthe I wish her to come home," said she, dig. nifiedly to Bridget. " Indade, ma'am," said Bridget, an shure she's not been after spaking the whole blissed hour." This was an emergency for which Mrs. Pridefit was not prepared, and she had invited the Rev. Dr. Smoothers to tea that very afternoon. Taking it for granted that the Misses Simpsons had done what was necessary for the present, Mrs. Pridefit allowed herself a few minutes' soliloquy: "Nepenthe had got so she was doing quite well-she wasn't so quick as some, but she was active, and learning to do quite well. What if she should be sick, there would be a doctor's bill, a good round one, too. Then she half frightened me to death, most setting the house on fire the other night, and now to cap the climax she has drowned herself, and my new pail, too, (dear me how many pails I've lost.) Just to think of Mrs. John Pridefit's turning nurse and getting a new girl. Why, dear me ! it's one o'clock already, and I told Dr. Smoothers to come early, and I'm sure I can never wait on my own table. Perhaps Nepenthe'll get along well enough-I suppose she's scared a little, but that won't kill her, and she may be a little deceitful, and try to make the ladies believe she is seriously hurt." Mrs. Pridefit had always found cards of great use in any sudden emergency; they could express sincere regret, if she desired not to accept any invitation; they could take the place of many civilities-and it was often said of her when in wealthier circumstances, that when she could not attend church, she sent her card to the sexton and had it laid on the altar-but here was one instance where cards would be of little use. She could not exchange calls with the Simpsons, those parvenu, plebeian, common people. Should she go now, it would be the beginning of civilities. She would rather receive and acknowledge a favor or kindness, from any quarter than "those Simpsons," she had so long ignored that vulgarly descended, vulgarly connected family. Then their father, she had understood, was nothing but a retail grocer. The next morning Mrs. Pridefit lectured Nepenthe about |