yet with the
generous spirit not wholly quenched in him, had entered upon a glowing
little speech in praise of the old gentleman and of his profession,--a
speech which, if it were garnished with here and there an objectionable
expletive, was very earnest and did him credit.

"Good for Reuben!" the party had cried out. "Get him a pulpit!"

"Hang me, if he wouldn't preach better now than the old man!" said one.

"And a deused sight livelier," said another.

"Hold your tongue, you blackguard!" burst out Reuben.

And from this the matter came very shortly to blows, in the course of
which poor Reuben was severely punished, though he must have hit some
hard blows, for he was wondrously active, and not a few boxing-lessons
had gone to make up the tale of his city accomplishments.

Howbeit, he was housed now, in view of his black eye, for many days, and
had ample time for reflection. In aid of this came a full sheet of
serious expostulations from the Doctor, and that letter of advice which
Squire Elderkin had promised, with a little warm-hearted postscript from
good Mrs. Elderkin,--so unlike to the carefully modulated letters of
Aunt Eliza! The Doctor's missive, very likely, did not impress him more
than the scores that had gone before it; but there was a practical tact,
and good-natured, common-sense homeliness, in the urgence of the Squire,
which engaged all Reuben's attention; and the words of the good woman,
his wife, were worth more than a sermon to him. "We all want," she
writes, "to think well of you, Reuben; we _do_ think well of you. Don't
disappoint us. I can't think of the cheery, bright face, that for so
many an evening shone amid our household, as anything but bright and
cheery now. We all pray for your well-being and happiness, Reuben; and I
_do_ hope you have not forgotten to pray for it yourself."

And with the memory of the kindly woman which this letter called up came
a pleasant vision of the winsome face of Rose, as she used to sit, with
downcast eyes, beside her mother in the old house of Ashfield,--of Rose,
as she used to lower upon him in their frolic, with those great hazel
eyes sparkling with indignation. And if the vision did not quicken any
lingering sentiment, it at the least gave a mellow tint to his
thought,--a mellowness which even the hardness of Aunt Eliza could not
wholly do away.

"I feel it my duty to write you, Reuben," she says, "and to inform you
how very much we have all been shock