himself, with his broken heart, off from the
neighborhood, and got ordered upon a distant and active service.

There were also other considerations that rendered it desirable for
Miriam to reside at Dell-Delight, rather than at Luckenough: Commodore
Waugh would have made a terrible guardian to a child so lately used to
the blessedness of a home with her mother--and withal, so shy and
sensitive as to breathe freely only in an atmosphere of peace and
affection, and Luckenough would have supplied a dark, and dreary home
for her whose melancholy temperament and recent bereavements rendered
change of scene and the companionship of other children, absolute
necessities. It was for these several reasons that Mrs. Waugh was forced
to consent that Thurston should carry his little adopted daughter to his
own home. Thurston's household consisted now of himself, Mrs. Morris,
his housekeeper; Alice Morris, her daughter; Paul Douglass, his own
half-brother; poor Fanny, and lastly, Miriam.

Mrs. Morris was a lady of good family, but decayed fortune, of sober
years and exemplary piety. In closing her terms with Mr. Willcoxen, her
one great stipulation had been that she should bring her daughter, whom
she declared to be too "young and giddy" to be trusted out of her own
sight, even to a good boarding school.

Mr. Willcoxen expressed himself rather pleased than otherwise at the
prospect of Miriam's having a companion, and so the engagement was
closed.

Alice Morris was a hearty, cordial, blooming hoyden, really about ten or
eleven years of age, but seeming from her fine growth and proportions,
at least thirteen or fourteen.

Paul Douglass was a fine, handsome, well-grown boy of fourteen, with an
open, manly forehead, shaded with clustering, yellow curls, as soft and
silky as a girl's, and a full, beaming, merry blue eye, whose flashing
glances were the most mirth-provoking to all upon whom they chanced to
light. Paul was, and ever since his first arrival in the house had been,
"the life of the family." His merry laugh and shout were the pleasantest
sounds in all the precincts of Dell-Delight. When Paul first heard that
there was to be an invasion of "women and girls" into Dell-Delight, he
declared he had rather there had been an irruption of the Goths and
Vandals at once--for if there were any folks he could not get along
with, they were "the gals." Besides which, he was sure now to have the
coldest seat around the fire, the darkest