e o' the gran'darters, an' I've often heard
Betsey remark that she should never see her more, for she lives to
London. Strange how folks feels contented in them strayaway places off
to the ends of the airth."

The flies and bees were buzzing against the hot windowpanes; the
handfuls of beans were clicking into the brown wooden measure. A bird
came and perched on the windowsill, and then flitted away toward the
blue sky. Below, in the yard, Betsey Lane stood talking with the lady.
She had put her blue drilling apron over her head, and her face was
shining with delight.

"Lor', dear," she said, for at least the third time, "I remember ye
when I first see ye; an awful pritty baby you was, an' they all said
you looked just like the old gen'ral. Be you goin' back to foreign
parts right away?"

"Yes, I'm going back; you know that all my children are there. I wish
I could take you with me for a visit," said the charming young guest.
"I'm going to carry over some of the pictures and furniture from the
old house; I didn't care half so much for them when I was younger as I
do now. Perhaps next summer we shall all come over for a while. I
should like to see my girls and boys playing under the pines."

"I wish you re'lly was livin' to the old place," said Betsey Lane. Her
imagination was not swift; she needed time to think over all that was
being told her, and she could not fancy the two strange houses across
the sea. The old Thornton house was to her mind the most delightful
and elegant in the world.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Mrs. Strafford
kindly,--"anything that I can do for you myself, before I go away? I
shall be writing to you, and sending some pictures of the children,
and you must let me know how you are getting on."

"Yes, there is one thing, darlin'. If you could stop in the village
an' pick me out a pritty, little, small lookin'-glass, that I can keep
for my own an' have to remember you by. 'Tain't that I want to set me
above the rest o' the folks, but I was always used to havin' my own
when I was to your grandma's. There's very nice folks here, some on
'em, and I'm better off than if I was able to keep house; but sence
you ask me, that's the only thing I feel cropin' about. What be you
goin' right back for? ain't you goin' to see the great fair to
Pheladelphy, that everybody talks about?"

"No," said Mrs. Strafford, laughing at this eager and almost
convicting question. "No; I'm going back ne