and turning to her daughter, said 'I have
repeatedly requested, and now I command you not to bring up Billy
Bender in comparison with every thing and every body."

"And pray, who is Billy Bender?" asked Mrs. Mason, and Mrs. Lincoln
replied, "Why, he's a great rough, over grown country boy, who used to
work for Mr. Lincoln, and now he's on the town farm, I believe."

"But he's _working_ there," said Jenny, "and he's going to get money
enough to go to school next fall at Wilbraham; and I heard father say
he deserved a great deal of credit for it and that men that made
themselves, or else men that didn't, I've forgot which, were always
the smartest."

Here the older portion of the company laughed, and Mrs. Lincoln,
bidding her daughter not to try to tell any thing unless she could get
it straight, again resumed the subject of the silver forks, saying to
Mrs. Mason, "I should think you'd be so glad. For my part I'm
perfectly wedded to a silver fork, and positively I could not eat
without one."

"But, mother," interrupted Jenny, "Grandma Howland hasn't any, and I
don't believe she ever had, for once when we were there and you
carried yours to eat with, don't you remember she showed you a little
two tined one, and asked if the victuals didn't taste just as good
when you lived at home and worked in the,--that great big noisy
building,--I forget the name of it?"

It was fortunate for Jenny's after happiness that Mrs. Campbell was
just then listening intently for something which Ella was whispering
in her ear, consequently she did not hear the remark, which possibly
might have enlightened her a little with regard to her friend's early
days. Tea being over, the ladies announced their intention of leaving,
and Mrs. Mason, recollecting Mrs. Lincoln's request for flowers,
invited them into the garden, where she bade them help themselves. It
required, however, almost a martyr's patience for her to stand quietly
by, while her choicest flowers were torn from their stalks, and it was
with a sigh of relief that she finally listened to the roll of the
wheels which bore her guests away.

Could she have listened to their remarks, as on a piece of wide road
their carriages kept side by side for a mile or more, she would
probably have felt amply repaid for her flowers and trouble too.

"Dear me," said Mrs. Campbell, "I never could live in such a lonely
out of the way place."

"Nor I either," returned Mrs. Lincoln, "but I think Mrs.