her children should call her 'ma','
being so much behind the age as actually not to know that 'mother'
had got to be much the genteeler term of the two; "Ma'," roared
Orlando Furioso, "suppose there is no news at Mr. Jones's store?"

"Then go to the nearest tavern; something must be stirring this fine
morning, and I'm dying to know what it can possibly be. Mind you
bring something besides the gridiron back with you. Hurry, or never
come home again as long as you live! As I was saying, Jenny, the
right of the public, which is our right, for we are a part of the
public, to this Point, is as clear as day, and I am only astonished
at the impudence of Mr. Effingham in pretending to deny it. I dare
say his French daughter has put him up to it. They say she is
monstrous arrogant!"

"Is Eve Effingham, French," said Jenny, studiously avoiding any of
the usual terms of civility and propriety, by way of showing her
breeding--"well, I had always thought her nothing but Templeton
born!"

"What signifies where a person was born? where they _live_, is the
essential thing; and Eve Effingham has lived so long in France, that
she speaks nothing but broken English; and Miss Debby told me last
week, that in drawing up a subscription paper for a new cushion to
the reading-desk of her people, she actually spelt 'charity'
'carrotty.'"

"Is that French, Miss Abbott?"

"I rather think it is, Jenny; the French are very niggardly, and give
their poor carrots to live on, and so they have adopted the word, I
suppose. You, Byansy-Alzumy-Ann, (Bianca-Alzuma-Ann!)"

"Marm!"

"Byansy-Alzumy-Ann! who taught you to call me marm! Is this the way
you have learned your catechism? Say, ma', this instant."

"Ma'."

"Take your bonnet, my child, and run down to Mrs. Wheaton's, and ask
her if any thing new has turned up about the Point, this morning;
and, do you hear, Byansy-Alzumy-Ann Abbott--how the child starts
away, as if she were sent on a matter of life and death!"

"Why, ma', I want to hear the news, too."

"Very likely, my dear, but, by stopping to get your errand, you may
learn more than by being in such a hurry. Stop in at Mrs. Green's,
and ask how the people liked the lecture of the strange parson, last
evening--and ask her if she can lend me a watering-pot, Now, run, and
be back as soon as possible. Never loiter when you carry news,
child."

"No one has a right to stop the man, I believe, Miss Abbott," put in
Jenny, very appositely