A Little Girl in Old Boston

onger tide was called Providence. Perhaps there was a small degree of fatalism in it. So Mrs.

r found so many things for her to do. Then Martha Grant came-a stout, hearty, pink-cheeked country girl who knew how to "take hold," and was glad of an opportunity to ear

ost of the bandboxes were immense affairs in which you could stow a good many things b

gets of his own, and for his wife. However, they strapped it on t

of a vague presentiment that something would happen to keep Betty

enerally taken in as one of the family-indeed, few of them would have come to be put down to the level of a common

going to begin the alphabet next. There were three kinds of letters. Ordinary capitals like p

." She could say the ten and eleven perfectly, but that very day she had misse

et through with the multiplicat

was hard to be so

ildren. Some have heads for figures and some don't. My sister Catharine could go all round me. But she's t

to hear that someone

ad a big farm and a good deal of stock. Martha's lover had bought a farm also, with a small old house of two rooms. He had to build a new barn, so they would wait for their house. She had a nice cow she had raised, a fl

r back to her own early life. City girls did come to have differ

dn't let the grass grow under her feet," and Doris wondered if she woul

esently, in a sad little voic

reeze to an icicle. Marth

p all around one, and in a little while she was as warm as toast. She did not even wake when Martha came to bed. Sometimes Betty cudd

m school one day, "do you know that Ch

ately, "it is suppos

ild-like eagerness. "The da

But some people try to remember every day that Christ cams to r

bella made a Christmas cake and ever so many little ones. The boys came aroun

ou are a larger girl and more used to our wa

ally keep it?

my

mesick for Betty. To have her away a whole month! And a curious thing was that no one seemed really to miss her and wish her back. Mrs. Leverett scann

ke Solomon, or a playful, amusing little kitten. The

she had not meant to cry. And now a sense of desolatio

the window, and when she saw that it was Uncle

do you get along without Betty? Come in out of the cold. I've just been wondering if you woul

in, I should be so glad to co

full of entr

two. And Recompense is quite willing. Th

and not make

But Recompense arranged it all. She has put up a little cot in the corner of her room. I insisted last winter

w good

d dancing around on on

lizabeth?" said

en and, not seeing her

I'm going to start another quilt. She said she'd never use them in the days

and wrinkling up her brow a little, "is not Christmas

settled in a strange land, fought Indians and wild beasts, and then fought again for liberty, and why they differed from th

glad to!" with

that he should take Doris over this afternoon and bring her b

ou're so little used to children. I keep

now-oh, you need not be afraid; I thi

om Betty before to-morrow. Mr. Eastman thought likely he'd find someone coming right back from

weather. How is Fo

nd Mrs. Leverett gave a piquant nod

. Recompense keeps her house as clean as a pink, and you couldn't get soiled if you

ck bright as a new pin, with her two high-necked aprons in her hand, a

udies a little, Winthrop. She

k and said good-by to Martha, while she kissed

little ride around," he said,

ore he had broached it to Recompense. Not but what he was maste

. Still, Cato can look after a fire in the guest chamber. It w

ometimes drew the bedclothes over their heads. But Winthrop Adams had a rather luxurious side to his nature; he called it a premon

id. "I remember how the child delights in a fi

ell and goes to school every day.

f. And there is the corner jog;

covered with chintz cushions. Her own high-post bedstead had curtains all around it of English damask, and the curiously carved high-back chairs had cushions tied in of the same material. There was no carpet

readily, for he was beginning to feel that he o

h in Boston, fine equipages with colored coachmen and footmen. There were handsome houses with lawns and gardens, some of them having orchards besides. There were r

an agreeable courtesy, yet each side kept its proper and distinctive relations; real worth was respected and dignified living held in esteem. From a printer's boy, Benjamin Franklin had stood before

re were still wide spaces and pasture fields, declivities where the barberry bush and locust and May flower grew undisturbed. There

ere was no wild rush to stand at the head or to outdo a neighbor, o

. There were large hats framing in pretty faces, and bows and nodding plumes on the top such as Mrs. King had written about. Oh, how lovely Betty would look in hers! What was Hartford

lling as if it was all in dead earnest. And this was the rambling old

s the fire you like so much. Take off your cloak and hood

beginning to feel dreadfully lonesome without Betty. I ought not when there were

ve no smal

so many people here have such numbers of b

e not all li

o be somewhere in the middle. Babies

pense smil

ke a painting. Miss Recompense went out to see about the supper. There was a good-natured black woman in the kitchen to do the

ble something. The china was saved for company, though there was one pretty cup they always gave to Aunt Priscilla. The everyday dishes were earthen, such as ordinary people used, and being of rather poor glaz

, and glanced at him in amaze; then turned to a pink glow

e child had! Miss Recompense pau

Win passed the thin, dainty slices of bread. Miss Recompense, when she was done with the tea, pas

in a glass which was cut with just a sparkle here

ats me," said Miss Recompense in a sort of helpl

glish the forsigners would say th

s some sense

think there was a good deal of sense in Chinese, which i

r knowledge was chiefly gleaned from rather rude maps and s

ris. "One forgets quite easily. I find I am a little lame. But you like your school, and it is near by this co

tty, but it took so long to tell the story over that she

rench novels in those days. Rousseau and Voltaire had been held in some degree respons

t he had joined heartily in a plan for the regeneration of France. But after the king was executed, Sunday abolished, and the government passed into the hands of tyrants who shouted "liberty" and yet brought about the slavery of terror, he

girl should have read a French story or be able to repeat French verses was quite horrify

tion, for he knew Mrs. Leverett's prejudices were very strong, and contin

p comfortable, for the rooms were large in those days and the outer edges chilly. Some people

uares,-red, white, and blue,-and it would be very fine when it was done. Doris

knit?" remarked

me to make a stocking. It seems very easy when you see other people do it," and Doris

r his part he did not see that reading the Bible through by the time you were eig

work can you do?" as

ard. And Miss Arabella taught me to

! What kin

t Miss Arabella used to. Betty took me there one afternoon. Madam Sheafe has

ed and

ts for, and I suppose Miss Arabella thought it wasn't worth while. But I hemm

ything she undertook would be nic

ice. To make pies and bread and cake, and roast chickens and turkeys and everythin

ed the grave face

ere are years that prove all too short for the work crowded in them, and then they begin to lengthe

fternoons cou

ternoons too, though the winter evenings

e best. Only the summer, with its flowers and the sweet, green out-of-doors, fills

thanks for a bo

oris re

nsult her about the breakfast, for she went to bed as soon as she had the kitchen set to rights. Then Doris glanced over to him in a shy, asking fas

due to the simple life, the absence of that introspection, which had already

ch again. Doris laughed softly when Uncle Winthrop blunde

ver, never!" long before Longfell

bit sleepy, and at Uncle Leverett's I alm

wonder," and U

," remarked Miss Recompense. "Your u

returned humorously, "but Miss Recompense won't let me.

said that lady. "But it does seem a si

out in the kitchen to see that all was safe and to bid Cato lock up. When she returned the candle was sen

ummer time, of roses and lavender. Miss Recompense stirred the fire and put on a big log. Then she s

our uncle thought you would be

bed is so small and cunning, just the bed fo

nor sleepy, and wondered about Betty and a dozen other things, one of the last remembrances was the