ll be so much improved."

"It is improved, but no' beyond your knowledge of it. It was ay a bonny
place, you'll mind. And it _is_ improved, doubtless, for her father
thinks there is nothing too good for Emily."

"And Oh! bairns, we have a reason to be thankful. If we trust our
affairs in God's hand, He'll `bring it to pass,' as he has said. And if
we are his, there is no' fear but the very best thing for us will happen
in the end."

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

"Who is is Mr Green, anyhow?"

The question was addressed by Mr Snow to the company generally, as he
paused in his leisurely walk up and down the gallery, and stood leaning
his elbow on the window, looking in upon them. His manner might have
suggested the idea of some mystery in connection with the name he had
mentioned, so slowly and gravely did his eyes travel from one face to
another turned toward him. As his question had been addressed to no one
in particular, no one answered for a minute.

"Who is Mr Green, that I hear tell so much about?" he repeated
impressively, fixing Will with his eye.

"Mr Green? Oh! he is an American merchant from the West," said the
literal Will, not without a vague idea that the answer, though true and
comprehensive, would fail to convey to the inquiring mind of the deacon
all the information desired.

"He is a Green Mountain boy. He is the most perfect specimen of a real
live Yankee ever encountered in these parts,--cool, sharp,
far-seeing,--"

Charlie Millar was the speaker, and he was brought up rather suddenly in
the midst of his descriptive eloquence by a sudden merry twinkle in the
eye of his principal listener; and his confusion was increased by a
touch from Rose's little hand, intended to remind him that real live
Yankees were not to be indiscreetly meddled with in the present company.

"Is that all you can say for your real live Yankee, Charlie, man?" said
Arthur, whose seat on the gallery permitted him to hear, but not to see,
all that was going on in the room. "Why don't you add, he speculates,
he whittles, he chews tobacco, he is six feet two in his stockings, he
knows the market value of every article and object, animate and
inanimate, on the face of the earth, and is a living illustration of the
truth of the proverb, that the cents being cared for, no apprehension
need be entertained as to the safety of the dollars."

"And a living contradiction of all the stale old sayings about the
vanity of rich