harm in my
asking that. If I live much longer, I sha'n't be allowed to talk about
anything except gruel and nightcaps. How's the baby?"

"Oh, he is _so_ well, Mrs. Tree, and such a darling! He looks like a
perfect beauty in that lovely cloak. I must bring him round in it to
show to you. It is the handsomest thing I ever saw, and it didn't look a
bit yellow after it was pressed."

"I got it in Canton," said Mrs. Tree. "My baby--I never had but one--was
born in the China seas. Here's her coral."

She motioned toward her lap, and Mrs. Bliss saw that a small chest of
carved sandalwood lay open on her knees, full of trinkets and odds and
ends.

"It is very pretty," said little Mrs. Bliss, lifting the coral and bells
reverently.

"Her name was Lucy," said Mrs. Tree. "She married Arthur Blyth, cousin
to the girls, and died when little Arthur was born. You may have that
for your baby; I'm keeping Arthur's for little Vesta's child. If you
thank me, you sha'n't have it."

CHAPTER XIV.

TOMMY CANDY, AND THE LETTER HE BROUGHT

"How do you do, Thomas Candy?" said Mrs. Tree.

"How-do-you-do-Missis-Tree-I'm-pretty-well-thank-you-and-hope-you-are-
the-same!" replied Tommy Candy, in one breath.

"Humph! you shake hands better than you did; but remember to press with
the palm, not pinch with the fingers! Now, what do you want?"

"I brung you a letter," said Tommy Candy. "I was goin' by the
post-office, and Mr. Jaquith hollered to me and said bring it to you,
and so I brung it."

"I thank you, Thomas," said the old lady, taking the letter and laying
it down without looking at it. "Sit down! There are burnt almonds in
the ivory box. Humph! I hear very bad accounts of you, Tommy Candy."

Tommy looked up from an ardent consideration of the relative size of the
burnt almonds; his face was that of a freckled cherub who knew not sin.

"What is all this about Isaac Weight and Timpson Boody, the sexton? I
hear you were at the bottom of the affair."

The freckled cherub vanished; instead appeared an imp, with a complex
and illuminating grin pervading even the roots of his hair.

"Ho!" he chuckled. "I tell ye, Mis' Tree, I had a time! I tell ye I got
even with old Booby and Squashnose Weight, too, that time. Ho! ha!
Yes'm, I did."

"You are an extremely naughty boy!" said Mrs. Tree, severely. "Sit
there--don't wriggle in your cheer; you are not an eel, though I admit
you are the next thing to it--and tell me every word