are so different from the people up in the country. But
I think she is the best friend I ever had. There, she's coming up now,"
she said, hearing the clatter of feet and voices ascending the stairway.

Millard was a little curious to see the teacher of whom he had heard so
much. He figured to himself some one only a little above his aunt in
station, and so the more ready to form an intimacy with humble people.
When Mary and Dick threw open the hall door of the apartment, so as to
make the interior visible from the obscurity of the stair-landing,
Millard, who was sitting with his back to the door, holding Tommy on his
lap, heard the voice of Phillida Callender say:

"I'll not go in this time; you have company."

"Do come in; it's only our Cousin Charley," pleaded Mary Martin, a girl
of fourteen.

Millard felt himself caught, and he would have liked to sit there and
let Miss Callender go down the stairs without recognizing him. But he
felt that he must be polite to her above all things, and his
relationship to the Martins was not a thing to be ashamed of, and must
besides soon be known to Phillida. So he rose with quick decision and
said as he walked towards the door:

"Don't let my presence keep you from coming in, Miss Callender; I am on
the point of leaving."

"You, Mr. Millard!" Phillida came forward, coloring a little, while Aunt
Hannah and the children stood and looked on in amazement. "Who would
have believed it! You are the cousin--the Cousin Charley of whom the
children here speak as though he were a good fairy. They pronounce the
name _Mill_erd, you know, and I didn't suspect _you_."

"But fancy _my_ surprise!" said Millard. "I ought to have guessed that
such a famous Sunday-school teacher could not be anybody but Miss
Callender. But I didn't even think to ask the name. So you are the
person of whose praises I am so jealous when I come here."

"Don't you think we're lucky to have such a cousin?" said Dick Martin,
the second child and the eldest boy, looking up at Miss Callender.

"Ah! now, Dick, you can't trap me into praising Mr. Millard to his
face," said Miss Callender. "Maybe I'll tell you some time when he isn't
here what I think of him." She was patting Dick on the shoulder. "But I
don't mind telling Mr. Millard right here and now that he is a very
lucky man to have such an aunt as your mother."

"Well said and true," answered Millard. "I like that better than
anything Miss Callender could say