Pembroke

ast for supper. The boiling milk steamed up fiercely in her face. "What makes you so l

voice sound as it usually did, but she could not. It broke and took on falter

e before her mother's hard, inquiring gaze. Her cheeks burned with splendid color, her lips trembled int

go by half an hour

made n

o see William Berry, I can tell you one thi

about something,

jest as well understand it first as last: if you've got a

ow what you mean!" Rebe

at me!" her mother

t, mo

k at

ed her pitilessly. "You ain't been tellin' of him y

t-j

you ne

the

to it. You ain't goin' to marry William Berry. Y

am because Barney won't marry his cousin

ough for you," said Deborah. "You a

eason than that. I won't stand it, mot

muscle, as if it were molten lead instead of milk; and, indeed, she might, from the look in her face, have been one of her female ancestors in the times of

on't!" gas

y against your parents' wishes, you know what you

airing motion with which she would have wrung her

had come in just as she spoke last to Rebecca,

" he asked, pleadingly, catch

o an' wash your face an' ha

ne else dared; he even jerked her dress now by way of enforcing an answer. But she grasped his arm so vigorously that he cried

ach, but she paid no attention. When he came in she ignored the great painful sigh which he heav

crew on her. But Deborah Thayer's emotions sometimes presented steel surfaces. "You can have a pain, then," said she. "I ain't goin' to let you go to ruin because you

hand dropped from his side. He had eaten half a plateful when his father came in. Caleb ha

alf an hour," his wife

' of her home, an' I had to chase her," Caleb returne

if I had the drivin' of her," remarked Deborah. She

Rebecca's empty place, then at his wife's face, long and pale and

he ventured, with

he's go

kly. "Ain't she c

hether she

" Deborah vouchsafed no re

ly. "I'll jest speak to her,"

drew his chair close again, and loaded his knife with toast, br

he?" he said, present

ess she a

leb said, chuckling anxiously. His wife made no reply. Ephraim rea

ave any more

jest a little

you c

t at my stom

eep on fee

e a piece of

her mouthful of anyt

his side again and sighed, b

a pain, sonny?

dreadf

hin' on it?" Caleb inquired, l

feel better," she replied, in a hard voice. "Set your

it to, mother,"

I tell you," s

lled his chair back to the window, and got his catechism out of the top drawer of his father's desk, an

answer it," said his mo

cholar, or his native indolence made him appear so. He had been drilled nightly upon the "Assembly's Catechism" for the past five years, and had had m

d. Ephraim had been strictly forbidden to attend school-beyond reading he had no education; but his mother resolved that spiritual education he should have, whether he would or not, and whether the doctor would or not. So Ephraim laboriously read the Bible through, a chapter at a time, and he went, step by step, through the wisdom of the Divines of Westminster. No matter how much he groaned over it, his mother was pitiless. Sometimes

nd across his eyes, huddle himself into his arm-chair, and say no more; and Deborah would

t hindered by the surreptitious eating of a hard red apple, which he had stowed away in his jacket-pocket. Hard a

innocently the precepts of the catechism, after a spasmodic swallowing. His father was nodding in his chair and saw nothing, and had he seen would not have betrayed him. A

m to bed, muttering remonstrances, his eyes as wild and restless as a cat's, his ear

l a little while?" sounded in a long

is mother. Then the slammin

y a few years younger than her husband, but she had retained her youthful vigor in much greater degree. She never felt the drowsiness of age stealing over her at nightfall. Indeed, oftentimes her senses seemed to gain in alertness as the day wore on, and many a night she was up and at work long after all the other members of her family were in bed. There came at such times to Deborah Thayer a certain peace and triumphant security,

they attributed it to her tireless industry. "The days wa'n't never lon

titched linen garment and lace-edged pillow-slip she destined for Rebecca when she should be wed, although she frowned on Rebecca's lover and spoke harshly to her of marriage. To-night, whil

so familiar with it, having knitted yards with her thought

er and shouts of the boys at play a little way down the road with

Charlotte Barnard," she said to herself, with a bitter purse of her lips in the dark. That merry whistler, passing her poor cast-out son in his lonely, half-furnished house, whose dark, shadowy walls she could see across the field, smote her as sorely as he smote him. It seemed to

stling as loud as might be one of his college airs, need not, although she

g, and he had responded with alacrity. "Why, of course I can," he cried, blushing joyfully all over his handsome face-"of cou

, soberly; and then she pressed forward to speak to another

etty new gown for her every-day one of mottled brown calico set

Charlotte. When she heard his shuffling step on the door-stone she started as if he had been her lover. When he came in she scrutinized him anxiously, to see if he looked

happened, has there

anythin' tha

rlotte set his supper before him. It was a plate of greens, cold boiled dock, and some rye-and-Indian bread. Cephas still adhered to his vegetarian diet, although he pined on it, and the longing for the flesh-pots was great in his soul. However, he said no more about sorrel pies, for the hardness and the flavor of those which he

ire had died away; to-night she set a large plump apple-pie slyly on the table-an apple-pie with ample allowance of lard in the crust thereof; and she fe

of the pie," she whispered to Charlotte i

the best room and lighted the candles. "You expectin' o

little before her mother's significantly smiling face, but there was none of the sham

your other dress again,

uess thi

e heard every word. After he had finished, he fumbled in his pocket for hi

hen her father came up behind her and crammed somethi

see," sa

with it," said Cephas. He cleared his throat, and went out through the kitchen into the shed. Charlot

up. He was dreadful sorry about that other, an' he's tickled 'most to death now he thinks

said, her steady mouth quiv

things now, but you had ought to have a new cape come fall; you can't come out bride in a muslin one whe

and wadded, would be hand

come out bride,"

. There, he's

k off her apron and started to answer it, but her mother caught her and pinned up a st

harlotte's decorous reply. The door of the front room shut, then she set the kitchen door ajar softly, but she could hear nothing but a vague hum of voices

squarely on the floor, his two hands on his knees, and listened to what she had to say, while his boyish face changed and whitened. Thomas was older than Charlotte, but he looked younger. It seemed, too, as if h

ed, her voice had in it a solemn embarrassment. "I don't know but you thou

think so, Charlotte,"

at her with vague alarm. Somehow some college scrapes of his flashed into his head, and he had a bewildered idea t

aising her eyes, and meeti

three Sabbath evenings

ow I have,

n coming, if I don't sa

," replied Thomas, with a

er errand than friendship, you must not come here any more. It isn't right for me to encourage you, and let you come here and get your feelings enlist

led the young man opposite. His face sobered. "You mean that you

it is not because there's on

s Barney,

few weeks ago," Charlotte said,

ace, and been ready to marry anybody. But I didn't know about girls; I didn't know but they were different; I always heard they got over things qui

e shook

you the way he does, Charlotte!" Thomas cried

hat, Thomas Payne," Charlotte said, stern

ot to have spoken so, if you- Oh, Charlotte, then you don't t

n a steady voice, "I don't

ny other fellow, Charlotte-I wouldn't do anything lik

eated Charlotte, monotonously,

uch of you, Charlotte, th

better

ll again. I'm going to tell you, Charlotte. I used to look across at you sitting in the meeting-house, Sabbath days, when I was a boy, and think you were the handsomest girl I ever saw. Then I did try to go with you once before I went to college;

otte

ght it was all settled and there was nothing more to be done. I made up my mind to bear it like a man and make the best of it, and I did. But this spring when I was through college, and that happened betwixt you and Barney, when he-didn't come back to you, and you didn't seem to mind so much, I couldn't help having a little hope. I

y difference," Charlotte said.

would have been rather hard on a fellow." Thomas Payne fairly laughed, although his handsome face was white. "I hope it will all come right betwixt you and Barney, Charlotte," he said, "and don't you worry about me, I shall get on. I'll own this seems a lit

th fair head softly. "I never touched you nor kissed you, except in games lik

not so much loyalty as the fear of disloyalty which led her to do so. In spite of herself, she saw Barney for an instant beside Thomas to his disadvantage, and h

ought not to have asked it

door had shut behind him, he set up his merry whistle. Charlott