g service."

"Who?" queried his fair companion. "Oh, if you mean pa, he's laid up on
account of takin' cold in the hay field. 'Taint goin' to amount to much
though. Let's hurry up, ma's motioning me to go faster."

They walked on, and Mrs. Wynn, eying their retreating figures with
supreme satisfaction, turned and smiled blandly upon Clemence.

"Now, I've got a little breath," she articulated, still with
considerable difficulty, "I want to ask you what on earth made you fly
out with your best friend. I didn't mean anything, only for your own
good."

"I believe you, Mrs. Wynn," said her young listener, generously. "I will
admit having experienced a momentary feeling of displeasure at your
words, but I have conquered it, and should have forgotten it, I am
sure, without this explanation. I am afraid it is I who ought to
apologise for having forgotten the respect due to age."

"There, now, don't," said Mrs. Wynn, now really in earnest. "It _was_
mean in me, to say that before them all, and I'm sorry for it, for it
shows the right spirit in you to try and defend the little creature. You
have shamed us all out by the way you have acted, and if ever you want
any help with the child, come to Mother Wynn, and see if she won't be as
good as her word, and show you the way out of your difficulties."

"Thank you, my good, kind friend," said Clemence, grasping the hand held
out to her, impulsively. "I am afraid that I am not equal to the
responsibility that I have taken upon myself in the care of this child,
but I shall do my very best."

"And angels can't do nothin' more," said Mrs. Wynn. "You're made of the
right stuff, child, and I'm glad we had this little fallin' out, we had
such a good makin' up time. I like you all the better. I wish Betsy
Pryor hadn't been there to see it, though--never mind, I'll make her pay
dearly for the satisfaction she enjoyed over it. I'll be your fast
friend from this time forward, and I ain't one of the kind to say a
thing that I don't mean."

"What a good-hearted, motherly woman," thought Clemence, after they
parted. "I am sure she meant well all the time." And perhaps it was but
natural that Mrs. Wynn should put Rose forward, and make her happiness a
thing to be considered above everything and everybody else. Other
mothers have done the same, and thought their Clementinas and Matildas
the dearest girls in the world, and hated everybody cordially, who did
not see them with their own partial