t and tasteful, and
not afraid to do something towards it with her own hands.

Being the eldest daughter, the entire charge of the family had devolved
upon her since the death of her mother, which had occurred about ten
years before. Within this time, her brothers and sisters had been
married, and now she and her father were all that were left at the old
homestead.

Their servants, too, had dwindled away. Some had been given to the
sons and daughters when they left the parental roof; some had died, and
others had been sold to pay debts and furnish the means of living. Old
Rosa, the cook, Nancy, the waiting-maid, and Methuselah, the ancient
gardener, were all the house-servants that remained. So they lived in
a very quiet and frugal way; and Miss Matilda's activities, not being
entirely engrossed with family cares, found employment in the nurture of
flowers and pets.

The grounds in front of the old-fashioned mansion had been laid out
originally in very elaborate style; and, though of late years they
had been greatly neglected, they still retained traces of their former
splendor. The rose-vines on the inside of the enclosure had grown
over the low, brick wall, to meet and mingle with the trees and bushes
outside, till together they formed a solid and luxuriant mass of
verdure. White and crimson roses shone amid the dark, glossy foliage
of the mountain-laurel, which held up with sturdy stem its own rich
clusters of fluted cups, that seemed to assert equality with the queen
of flowers, and would not be eclipsed by the fragrant loveliness of
their beautiful dependents. The borders of box, which had once been
trimmed and trained into fanciful points and tufts and convolutions of
verdure, had grown into misshapen clumps; and the white, pebbly walks no
longer sparkled in the sunlight.

Still Miss Matilda, by the aid of Methuselah, in appearance almost
as ancient as we may suppose his namesake to have been, found great
pleasure in cultivating her flower-beds; and every year, her crocuses
and hyacinths, crown-imperials and tulips, pinks, lilies, and roses,
none the less beautiful because they are so commonly enjoyed, gave a
cheerful aspect to the place.

Her numerous pets made the house equally bright and pleasant. There
was Sir Walter Raleigh, the dog, and Mrs. Felina, the great, splendid,
Maltese mother of three beautiful blue kittens; Jack and Gill, the
gentle, soft-toned Java sparrows; and Ruby, the unwearying canary