nd intelligent aspect and was medium in
all respects. The social lines in the town, indeed in all the Eastern
towns, were not sharply defined as to mistress and maid. True, many
households preferred black servants; in not a few some elderly relative
looked after the household, or a bound-out girl was trained in
industrious ways.

There had been some discussion as to what sphere this Miss Winn would
occupy. If she was simply the attendant on an over-indulged child, an
uneducated person, as many of the English maids were who came over to
better their conditions or get husbands, it might be rather awkward. But
the woman was certainly well-bred and used her English in a correct
manner.

"Perhaps you will get to feeling more at home if you come down to the
sitting-room, since there is nothing to unpack;" with a faint smile.

Cynthia had been looking out of the window. "How queer it all is!" she
said. "I think I do not quite like it. And how funny one feels. I want
to go this way;" and she swayed from side to side.

"The motion of the vessel," interposed Rachel. "I have heard it took
days to get over it."

Meanwhile, downstairs Elizabeth had studied her Cousin Chilian.

"The child is not at all pretty," she began rather sharply. "And her
mother was considered a beautiful young woman, I believe."

"Yes; but a long voyage and shipboard living may not be conducive to the
development of beauty. And children seldom are at that age."

"The Goodell children are pretty, I am sure, with their fine
complexions. And the Bates girls. She has a furtive sort of look. Oh, I
hope she isn't deceitful and untrue. Those heathen nations, I believe,
are given largely to falsehood, and she has lived among them so long
without any mother's care. It seems as if a pretty girl like Alletta
Orne might have found some one at home to marry and reared her child in
a Christian land."

"Do not let us begin by borrowing trouble. It always comes fast enough."

"And I can foresee that we shall have plenty of it. Well, I suppose it
must be endured. There! my bread is light enough to go in the
oven--running over, likely as not."

So, when they came downstairs, Miss Elizabeth was in the kitchen,
immersed in her baking interest.

A large gray cat lay curled up on a cushion. Cynthia went straight over
to it, but it glanced at her with wild eyes, jumped down, and
disappeared through the doorway.

"Oh!" she exclaimed in accents of disappointment, glan