the Lord."

The expression carried me back to my childhood, and I bit my
lips. "Of course you have," I said. "Wasn't I brought up in this
same village, in the same way? Did not my good mother and my
blessed, grandmother inflict nurture and admonition upon me, that
I might grow up as you see me, a true child of the pilgrim
fathers? The nurture, I remember, was a particularly hard seat in
our particularly gloomy old meetinghouse, and the admonition took
up the greater part of the Sabbath day, with a disenchanting
prospect of further admonition at home if I failed to keep awake.
I do not mean to say that I am not thankful for the experience.
In truth I am doubly thankful--thankful that I had it, and
thankful that it is over."

To this Mary vouchsafed no further remonstrance than a
distrustful shake of the head. Excellent woman! Is it not to such
as you, earnest, faithful, self-sacrificing, God-fearing, that
the best in young manhood, the purest in young womanhood, owe the
strength of the qualities that are the vital force of the
nation?

In the end the united opposition was too much for Mary's
arguments, and to town we went. The pleasure of the journey, on
my part, was somewhat clouded as to the welcome we should receive
from Prudence, and truly it acquired my greatest powers of
dissimulation to feign an easy indifference and air of authority
before that worthy creature, as with the most studied politeness
and formal hospitality she received us at the gate. Prudence and
I had sparred so many years that we were like two expert
athletes, and while neither apparently noticed the other, each
was perfectly conscious of the adversary's slightest movement.
Hence I detected at once her strong aversion to Mary, whom she
immediately selected as a probable mistress, and I saw her
several times vainly try to repress a grimace of disdain and
wrath. It was my first impulse to follow Prudence into the
kitchen, after the ladies had gone to their rooms, and make a
clean breast of the untoward tidings, but I lacked the moral
courage and contented myself with an inward show of strength. Why
should I pander to this woman's caprices? Was I not master in my
own house? Should I not do as I pleased? I would punish her with
the severity of my silence, and perhaps in a week or two, when
she was more tractable, I would condescend to tell her exactly
how matters stood. In this I would be firm.

But the next morning, before my guests wer