ad had
a hard life and many cares, and no wonder that she was a little hard and
sour after all she had passed through. But this was by no means all
that could be said of Miss Betsey.

There was little intercourse between the Holts of the Hill and the
village Holts, and it was not the fault of Elizabeth. It was Betsey who
decidedly withdrew from any intimacy with her cousins. She was too
old-fashioned, too "set" in her way to fall in with all their new
notions, she said, and from the time that Elizabeth came home from
school to be the mistress of her father's house, and the most popular
person in Gershom, she had had but little to do with her. It hurt
Elizabeth that it should be so, for she respected her cousin and would
have loved her, and would doubtless have profited--by their intercourse
if it had been permitted. But she never got beyond a certain point in
the intimacy with her, at least she did not for a time.

The Hill Holts were much respected in the neighbourhood, and Miss Betsey
exerted an influence in its way almost as great as did Miss Elizabeth.
One or two persons who knew them both well, said they were very much
alike, though to people generally they seemed in temper, in tastes, and
in manner of life as different as well could be. They were alike and
they were different, and the chief difference lay in this, that Miss
Betsey was growing old and had passed through troubles in her time, and
Miss Elizabeth was young and had most of her troubles before her.

The village of Gershom Centre, as it was called, at this time lay
chiefly on the north bank of the Beaver River. Its principal street ran
north and south at right angles to the river, and the village houses
clustered closest at the end of the bridge that crossed it. At the
south end of the bridge another street turned west down the river, and
at a little distance became a pleasant country road which led to the
hill-farm of the Holts, and past it to the neighbouring township of
Fosbrooke. Another street went east, on the north side of the river a
few hundred yards, and then turned north to the Scotch settlement at the
Gore.

On this street, before it turned north, the new church stood. There was
a wide green common before it, shaded by young trees, and only the
inclosing fence and the road lay between this and the river, which was
broad and shallow, and flowed softly in this part of its course. The
church was a very pretty one of its kind--whit