mpany when Frisbie made his call.

Fabens was advanced in life, and yet he looked young, as if time had
taken a ten years' rest. Mrs. Fabens had grown round and robust; but
had not shed her blooms; while Fanny had become perfectly straight, and
her hair was two shades darker; her eyes had still more lustre; her
countenance still more life, and her voice still more music; while her
step was more elastic, and her form was more nature.

A prodigal walnut fire glowed gloriously before them; butternuts and
chestnuts were tasted, and a large dish of rosy Spitzenbergs passed
around; and while Fabens and Frisbie kept up a running talk, Mrs.
Fabens and Fanny enjoyed the hour, as one sat knitting fringe-mittens
in the corner, and the other plied her dexterous needle piecing a
bed-quilt in snow-balls by the stand; and seeming to contend with the
walnut fire, which should give forth the liveliest, warming smile, and
fill up all the room with the most comfort, joy, and peace.

"Yes, I have known Fairbanks, known him like a brother, since we were
little boys at school," said Frisbie. "We began our A B C's together,
when Mary Sanford taught school; and I remember we said, 'A,' 'B,' 'C,'
'D,' and so on, in a loud voice, both at a time. And that Mary
Sanford--you did not know her, did you, Squire? She taught in the same
district five years; and it was said, she impressed much of her own
noble heart on her pupils (though of this, perhaps, it does not become
_me_ to speak;) but she married a false villain at last, and now she
lives poor and deserted, they say, away out on the White Woman's Tract,
beyond the Genesee river, with a family of children to support.

"And my heart has ached for many lovely girls who have thrown
themselves away to such scoundrels. Her husband was brought up in the
neighborhood too, and everybody thought George Lowry was a very pink of
virtue. That made it seem so strange. Well, as I was going to say,
Fairbanks always seemed a brother to me; and if there could be any
fault in his treatment, he has trusted me too largely, and given me to
share too many of his gifts and gains. But there, you never saw such a
fellow in your life!"

"In what particular?" asked Fabens; while Mrs. Fabens took a quicker
rock in her chair and scratched her forehead with her knitting needle;
and Fanny paused from her piecing to hear.

"I mean in his confidence in men, and his free-heartedness, giving away
what he has. He wou