ittle later; and
everybody fell to kissing Patty, for that had long been a family habit
when any feeling came up which was too strong or too deep to be
expressed.

The next day, in Mrs. Lyman's Sunday evening talk with the children, she
told them the trust Mary had shown in her father, when he asked her to
cross the bridge, was just the feeling we should have towards our
heavenly Father, who is all-wise, and can never make mistakes; and then
she gave them this verse to learn:--

"Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust."

Patty forgot the verse very soon; but Mary remembered it as long as she
lived.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TITHING-MAN

One summer's day, two years or so after this, Moses was half sick with a
"run-round" on his finger, and consented to go up in the
spinning-chamber and play with Patty: he never played with girls when he
was well. Dorcas was at the little flax-wheel spinning linen, and Patty
was in a corner under the eaves, with her rag babies spread out before
her,--quite a family of them. The oldest granddaughter was down with
brain fever, and she wanted Moses to bleed her. Moses did it with great
skill. When he practiced medicine, he pursued the same course Dr. Potter
did, their family physician; he bled and "cupped" Patty's dolls, and
gave them strong doses of calomel and "jalap."

[Illustration: DR. MOSES BLEEDS AND CUPS.--Page 45.]

"Dorcas," said Dr. Moses, looking up, with his jackknife in the air,
"what's a witch?"

"A witch? Why, we call Patty a little witch sometimes when she tangles
the flax and tries to spin."

"O, I never!" exclaimed Patty, "only just once I--"

"No, no; I mean a real witch," pursued Moses. "You know what I mean.
Betsey Gould's mother puts Bible leaves under the churn to keep 'em out
of the butter."

"Bible leaves!" said Dorcas. "How did Mrs. Gould's Bible happen to be
torn?"

"I don't know; but she puts horseshoes top o' the door, too," added
Moses; "you know she does, Dorcas, and lots of other folks do it. What
sort of things are witches? And what makes father and mother laugh about
'em, when other folks are so afraid?"

"Because father and mother are wiser than most of the people in this
little town. Perhaps I ought not to say it, Moses, but it's the truth."

It was the truth, and Moses knew it very well. He was only talking to
amuse himself, and to hear what Dorcas would say. You must remember this
was more than sixty years ago, and Pe