ely at home in his strange surroundings, his voice rising to a
pitch that resounded through the large room with a peculiar nasal
twang Marion had never heard before. She saw one face after another
make its appearance through the half-open door, and she knew very well
this unusual visitor was giving a great deal of amusement to those who
saw him.

Accustomed to see rude characters at the West as she was, never before
had Marion met one who seemed to her so utterly oblivious of all
common proprieties. She felt sure that if he remained long, the whole
school would be made aware of his peculiar presence; and though she
struggled hard not to be ashamed of him, and to make his call as
pleasant as she could, she was much relieved when she saw Miss Ashton,
who, hearing the strident voice, had come to ascertain its source.

As a New England woman, she at once recognized the type. Marion could
only introduce him as her "Cousin Abijah."

"Three times removed," put in Cousin Abijah, without rising from his
chair, only twirling his hat a little faster in Miss Ashton's stately
presence.

She held her hand out to him cordially, and when he put his great
brown knotty fist within it, a dull red color came slowly into his
seamed face. It was not from any want of self-respect, far from it;
he would not have been abashed if Queen Victoria with all her court
in full dress had entered the room. A real out-and-out country New
Englander knows no peer the wide world over.

Seating herself near him, Miss Ashton soon drew him into a pleasant
conversation, to which Marion listened in much surprise. Even the
man's voice dropped to a lower pitch, and what he said lost the
asperity that had made it so disagreeable. After a few minutes, she
proposed to him to show him around the building, where she was sure he
would find much to interest him, and, what was a very unusual thing
for her to do, she went with him herself. A visitor of this kind was
rare in the academy. She well knew the amusement he would create, and
when they met, as they did often, groups of girls in the corridor, who
stared and smiled at her uncouth companion, she silenced them by a
look, which they could not fail to understand.

Kind Miss Ashton! Marion, as well as Cousin Abijah, will never forget
it.

"Now, Marion," she said, when they returned to the parlor, "I will
excuse you from your next recitation, and you can take your cousin
over to the neighboring city. There is a g