“A what?” screamed Jim, as he sank beside the fallen table and rolled upon the ground in a fit of irrepressible merriment; “Do, for Heaven’s sake, tell me the English for a fut. Oh dear, I shall die! Why do you make such funny purchases, Mrs. Waddel, and suffer Betty to show them off in such a funny way? You will be the death of me, indeed you will; and then, what will my Mammy say?” To add to this ridiculous scene, Mrs. Waddel’s grey parrot, who was not the least important personage in her establishment, having been presented to her by her sailor son, fraternised with the prostrate lad, and echoed his laughter in the most outrageous manner. “Whist, Poll! Hould yer clatter. It’s no laughing matter to lose three an’ saxpence in buying the like o’ that.” Mrs. Waddel did not attend another auction during the month the Lyndsays occupied her lodgings. With regard to Betty Fraser, Jim picked up a page out of her history, which greatly amused Flora Lyndsay, who delighted in the study of human character. We will give it here. Betty Fraser’s first mistress was a Highland lady, who had married and settled in Edinburgh. On her first confinement, she could fancy no one but a Highland girl to take care of the babe, when the regular nurse was employed about her own person. She therefore wrote to her mother to send her by the first vessel which sailed for Edinburgh, a good, simple-hearted girl, whom she could occasionally trust with the baby. Betty, who was a tenant’s daughter, and a humble scion of the great family tree, duly arrived by the next ship. She was a hearty, healthy, rosy girl of fourteen, as rough as her native wilds, with a mind so free from guile that she gave a literal interpretation to everything she saw and heard. In Canada Betty would have been considered very green. In Scotland she was regarded as a truthful, simple-hearted girl. A few weeks after the baby was born, some ladies called to see Mrs. ——. The weather was very warm, and one of them requested the neat black-eyed girl in waiting to fetch her a glass of water. Betty obeyed with a smiling face; but oh, horror of horrors, she brought the clear crystal to the lady guest in her red fist. The lady smiled, drank the water, and returned the tumbler to the black-eyed Hebe, who received it with a profound curtsy. When the visitors were gone, Mrs. ——, who was very fond of her young clanswoman, called her to her side, and said, “Betty, let me never see you bring anything into my room in your bare hands. Always put what you are asked for on to a waiter or an ashat.” The girl promised obedience. The very next day some strange ladies called; and after congratulating Mrs. —— on her speedy recovery, they expressed an earnest wish to see the “_dear little baby_.” Mrs. —— rang the bell. Betty appeared. “Is the baby awake?” “Yes, my leddy.” “Just bring him in to show these ladies.”