With the other inmates of the house, however, she was a special favorite, and many were the kind turns which she had done for the lame woman, whom Miss Grundy took delight in reminding that “she didn’t half earn the salt to her porridge.”

Next to the wig, nothing more annoyed Miss Grundy than to see Sal, with grammar in hand, perched upon the window sill or table, and repeating at the top of her voice the “rules,” of which every fourth one seemed to have been made with direct reference to herself.  But it was of no use for Miss Grundy to complain of this, for as Sal said, “Mr. Parker merely winked at it as the vagaries of a disordered mind,” and she was free to quote her grammar from morning till night.  Whenever she was crazier than usual, her command of language was proportionately greater, and her references to her grammar more frequent, while no one in the house could venture a remark without being immediately corrected for some impropriety of speech.

Uncle Peter, who had a high opinion of Sally’s abilities, always did his best to converse as she directed, but in her “inspired days” even he became utterly confounded, and once when in one of her lofty strains, she had labored hard to impress upon him the all-important fact that adjectives are frequently changed into adverbs by the suffix “ly,” the old man, quite out of his wits with his efforts to understand and profit by her teachings, was guilty of a laughable blunder.

“Uncle Peter,” said she, “did you notice how unusually funnily Miss Grundy’s wig was arranged at dinner to-day?”

Thinking that he fully understood the reply which he was expected to make, and anxious to make amends for his former stupidity, Uncle Peter promptly replied, “No, madam I did not-ly.’”

The look of horror which Sally’s face assumed, convinced Uncle Peter that he had failed in his attempts at speaking grammatically, and with a sudden determination never again to try, he precipitately left the house, and for the next two hours amused himself by playing “Bruce’s Address” upon his old cracked fiddle.  From that time Sal gave up all hopes of educating Uncle Peter, and confined herself mostly to literary efforts, of which we shall speak hereafter.

The night following Sal’s first acquaintance with Mary, Alice cried until nearly day dawn.  The milk which Miss Grundy’s stinginess allowed her, was not particularly conducive to her health, and besides that, she missed the invigorating bath to which she had been accustomed during her mother’s lifetime.  Mary had spoken of it two or three times, but Miss Grundy only jerked her shoulders, saying, “she guessed she wasn’t going to have such a slush around the house.  You can bring her down,” said she, “to the sink, and pump as much water on her as you like;” so Mary said no more about it until the night of which we have spoken, and then she determined on making one more effort.  But her heart almost failed her, when, on entering the kitchen, she saw how the chairs and Miss Grundy’s shoulders danced round.  She well knew that something was wrong, and attributing it to Alice’s crying, she awaited in silence for the storm to burst.