ng our stay. My mother was one who seldom left her
home, and she surprised me one day by saying, "If Charley and I would
take a journey to Uncle Nathan's, she and Flora would accompany us," and
that very evening I wrote to my uncle and aunt informing them of our
proposed visit, and asking them if they would be willing to entertain
so large a party; and an answer soon arrived informing me that nothing
would afford them more pleasure than our visit, and "they were very sure
they could find room for us all." I had only paid one hasty visit to
Fulton since I left it, and I anticipated much pleasure from again
meeting my uncle and aunt with many old friends of my school-days at
Fulton.

I did not intend writing a long story, and will not trouble my readers
with the particulars of our journey, nor of the hearty welcome we
received when we arrived at the old farm house of Uncle Nathan. Let it
suffice that nothing was wanting to render our stay agreeable. My uncle
and aunt looked scarcely a day older than when I left them eight years
since. Upon my remarking how lightly time had set on them, my uncle
replied with his old manner of fun and drollery, "Don't you know,
Walter, that old bachelors and old maids never grow old, they get kind
o' dried in just such a way and keep so for any length of time," and I
could not help thinking there was some truth in his remark. I enquired
with much curiosity for Cousin Silas and his family. "O!" replied Aunt
Lucinda, "upon the whole they have done better than one could have
expected when they first came here. Silas will never do much anyway,
they still live on the Taylor place, and Nathan manages one way and
another to get some work out of him. Nathan intends at some time to deed
the place to the family in such a way that Silas can't squander it away;
but he has never told them so yet. Somehow or other, after mother's
death, I felt drawn toward the family, and did all I could to help them
along. I kept the little girls with me by turns, and encouraged them to
attend school, and took pains to learn them habits of order and
industry, and I found after a time that my labor was not entirely thrown
away, for as they grew older they carried the habits which I tried to
teach them into their own home, and to say the least of it, they live
much more like other people than they used to; and I begin to think that
even an old maid can do a little good in the world, now and then, as
well as any one else.