clue to your
history there in that basket, Gem. There was heaps of baby clothes,
nicely got up and marked 'In-gem-is-ca,' and there was a small bag of
gold coins, amounting to just one hundred dollars. That was all. And
now, didn't you give me your word never to ask me any questions about
yourself?"

"I know I did, grandma, and I will keep my word; but oh, grandma, I
can't help thinking about it and suspecting who I am."

"Hush! hush, Gem! Put away such troublesome thoughts. I had rather see a
little natural silliness than so much gravity in one so young as you
are. Be a girl while girlhood lasts. The season is short enough. This is
Hallow Eve. When I was young, it used to be a gay festival, and not the
funeral feast my mournful daughters would make it. When I was young, the
lads and lasses, on a Hallow Eve night, used to try spells to find out
their sweethearts and lovers. And if ghosts walked then, they were merry
sprites who only came to tell the youths and maidens whom they were to
love and marry. Come, now, I'll teach you a sure spell. Here are some
chestnuts," she said, rising and taking a little basket from the chimney
shelf, and emptying it into Gem's lap.

"What am I to do with these, grandma?" smiled the girl.

"You are to take half a dozen large ones, scratch on each the first
letter in the name of some young man you know. Then on another, 'Str.'
for stranger; on another 'Wid.' for widower; on the last one, a cross
for old maidenhood."

Smilingly Gem complied with the directions, and marked the chestnuts,
while the old lady, with spectacles on nose, watched her carefully.

When they were all ready, Gem looked up, saying:

"Well, they are marked! Nine of them altogether."

"Now lay them in a row on the hot hearth, close to the coals, to roast."

"It is done," said Gem, after she had arranged them according to rule.

"Now, then, my dear, you must sit and watch them in perfect silence,
until they are roasted, when they will begin to pop; and the first one
that pops will be your fate, whether it be one of the young men, or the
widower, or the stranger, or whether it be the cross that stands for old
maidenhood."

Smilingly Gem folded her hands, and composed herself to perfect silence
and stillness.

While she watched her roasting chestnuts, the old lady watched her.

Each of these women, the ancient dame and the youthful maiden, was
making herself silly to please the other. Mrs. Winterose, wishing t