he country-side that day, and that was

hough evidences of their affliction were always to be seen in the countenances of either, they had entered with so much purpose into the life of their adopted town that they had become persons of note there till Philemon's health began to fail, w

erning Agatha's lack of vanity; a virtue not very com

od these streets), she showed as little interest in dress as anyone I ever knew. Calico at home and calico at church, yet she l

he needed to dress so plainly. I don't believe in such a show of poverty myself. If one is too poor to go decent, a

t is, as long as he lives. He

of his head since her death?" inter

e widow Jones has take

do with her death? Some of the neighbours say he struck her while in one of his crazy fit

con. "Time will show who robbed us of the greate

o spoke; the least one of the family, but the brightest. "I'm sorry

e all remember, there was some struggle between Agatha and me as to which of us should have her. But I didn't like the task of teaching her the name of every p

e one. "She never called things by their Swedish nam

et, as she did that under Agatha's?" asked the deacon, eying hi

pable woman in town," retorted his wife, c

's daughter between the coast and Springfield. She did not dress in calico then. She wore the gayest clothes her father could buy. her, and old Jacob was not without means to make his daughter the leading figure in town. How we young fellows did adore her, a

carry off the priz

never been in it, perhaps; but there were three good years of my life in which I thought of little else than Agatha. I admired her spirit, you see. There was something more taking in her ways than in her beauty, wonderful as that was. She ruled us with a rod of iron, and yet we worshipped her. I have wondered to see her so meek of late.

a quiet life. A woman cannot close the eyes of six children, one aft

e; but she was a splendid looking girl, boy

hillside a woman was nursing a baby and

eing away at sea. I was too young to know much about sickness, but something told me that I must have help before morning or my baby would die. Though I could just walk across the floor, I

became dripping wet before I could drag myself inside. The baby began to moan and everyt

e till the storm has blown by? I ca

with the look of an angel in her eyes. I did not know her, but her face w

the doctor, but my knees bent under

p into her face, which was bending over me. She was white as the rag I had tied about my baby

arms and wither at my breast. I cannot touch it, much as I yearn to. But

she bent over it, trembling very mu

though from the way she watched it I saw that her heart was set on his getting better. And he did; in an hour he was sleeping peacefully, and the terrible weight was gone from my heart and from hers. When the

commenting upon the look of sere

r a look of real peace. It is wonderful, considering the circumstances. Do you think she was so

iting them from New York,

death beyond what you have told me. But from the very incongruity between her expression and the vio

d by theft. To be sure we do not yet know the crimi

ager that that is a

ling proposition

t my cloth

ious to show how strong my conviction was against any such eas

chester road were exchan

at I think abou

How sh

hat she sent. Don't you know she had six childr

ed'em

er house-I don't know what that is; but I guess it's something big and heavy-and

lad I ben't

ctions interchanged between two

me running in with the news that the baby she had left at h

she showed when they told her it was alive and well I never saw. I do not know why she di

dazzling. They changed, though, at the sight of Sairey's face, and she jumped to meet her just as if she knew what Sairey was going to say before ever a word left her lips. 'My baby!' (I can hear her yet.) 'Something is the matter with the baby!' And though Sairey made haste to tell her that he was only ailing and not at all ill,

emon were both fond of children. Well, well, the ways of Provi

er soon; he can't l

He had been sent there to choose a spot in which to lay the mother, and was full of the shock it gave him to see that line of l

earthstone. "I spend a good quarter of my time in the churchyard; but when I saw those six little mounds, and read the

EP

lemon and

ged Six

ciful to m

t mean? Did you ev

was one of those Calvinist folks who believe

well out of her bed. 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' And the chick not six weeks

ave of the child who was kill

hi

not, for Go

had but one

rs. More than that; when Sissy was up and I went to pay the doctor's bill I found it had been

last twenty years came to light on that day, the most notable of which was the s

d more secret nature still came up

ody stirred in her behalf but Agatha. She went to see her, and, though it was within a fortnight of the wedding, she did not hesitate to advise the girl to give him up, and when the poor child said she lacked the courage, Agatha herself

r the weak and the erring. Never was a man talked to as she talked to Jake Cobleigh the evening after he struck his mother, and if she had been in town on the day when Clarissa

simple that few gave attention to the intellect that was the real basis of her power. The two mentioned gentlemen, however, appre

you ever exchange any words with her?-for I can hardly believe you could have met h

rederick's earliest playmates, but one with whom he had never assimilated and who did not like him.

had allowed his gaze to wander through the open window by which she sat, into the garden beyond, where Amabel could be seen pick

o superior to any other woman I had ever met that I did not know whether to hide my face in her skirts or to follow my first impulse and run away. She saw the emotion she had aroused, and lifting up my face by the chin, she said: 'Little boy, I have buried six children, all of them younger than you, and now my husband and myself live alone. Often and often have I wished that one at least of these darling infants might have been spared us. But had G

lliday regarded him with astonishment and quite forgot to indulge in her usual banter. Even the gentlemen sat still, an

just finished gathering her b