cheerfully, only takin' the same as not to be your idea, mum.
So I says, says I, somebody havin' to be punished, your ma's goin' to do
it to take the punishment herself, that is, in lest you do it your own
selves instead. So, says I, I'll mend one stocking of each if you do the
other, Mrs. Evan, and no disrespect intended.

"I borried Effie's embroidery rings and set the two holes for them and
run them in one way, leavin' them the fillin' to do, which they have,
sittin' the whole afternoon at it most perseverin'."

"Richard did his one stitch, but I did mine four stitch; it ate up the
hole quicker, and it's more different," quoth Ian, waving his stocking,
into the knee of which he had managed to introduce a sort of
kindergarten weaving pattern.

"But mine looks more like Martha's, doesn't it, mother?" pleaded patient
Richard, who, though the threads were drawn and gathered, had kept to the
regular one up and one down throughout.

Then the signal of the smoke arose against the opal of the twilight sky,
and we went out hand in hand, all three happy, to meet our breadwinner.

Late that night, when all the household slept, I added a little package
to my treasures in the attic desk,--two long stockings with queer darned
knees,--and upon the paper band that bound them is written a date and
"The Sweating of the Corn."

IX

A WAYSIDE COMEDY

_May 5th_. Madame Etiquette has entered this peaceful village. Not,
however, as the court lady of the old French regime, but travelling in
the wake of the Whirlpoolers under dubious aliases, being sometimes
called Good Form and at other The Correct Thing. At present she is having
a hand-to-hand encounter with New England Prejudice, a once stalwart old
lady of firm will, but now considerably weakened by age and the incessant
arguing of her great-grandchildren.

The result of the conflict is quite uncertain, for actually even the
Sunday question hangs in the balance; while the spectacle is most amusing
to the outsider and embarrassing to the referees.

Father, seeing through medical eyes, regards the matter merely in the
light of a mild epidemic. Evan is rather sarcastic; he much preferred
garden quiet and smoking his evening pipe to the tune of soothing
conversation concerning the rural days' doings, to the reflex anxiety of
settling social problems. In these, lo and behold, I find myself
unwillingly involved, for one New England habit has not been
abandoned--that of cons