Ah! my child, how much we owe to that young man's
goodness and enterprise!"

"Indeed, indeed, we do. But seems to me we do nothing but cook here,
nowadays. It's always company, isn't it?"

"And glad I am of that. So long as the larder has anything in it, I
love to share it with--friends. Not strangers, who do not care, but
with anybody else, the best we have. If a luxury well; and if but a
crust, still well. Now--to Aunt Sally."

Jessica guessed that as soon as she was out of sight the disagreeable
letter from the other side of the continent would be promptly read,
and wondered not a little concerning its contents. And she was right.
Mrs. Trent had barely finished its perusal, when Mrs. Benton appeared,
but from her the mother had nothing to hide. She looked up quietly,
and said:

"Another more urgent entreaty from old Cousin Margaret. She puts the
matter so strongly as my duty that I'm compelled to acknowledge she
is--may be--right."

"Humph! She's been wrong enough, sometimes," returned Aunt Sally,
peevishly. "That's when she got angry with you for marrying Cass'us."

"That was mostly from indignation at losing me, her one loved
relative. There could never have been a kinder guardian----"

"Nor a queerer, as I've gathered from your own talk. I never saw
Margaret Dalrymple, and I never want to. Anyhow, nothin' can be done
at present; but I've brought one comfortin' word across from the
quarters with me, Gabriella."

"What's that, Aunt Sally? Is Antonio better?"

"Oh! bother Antonio. He'll get well, of course. That kind always does.
Of that I never had a misdoubt. The word is this, and I begin to think
that old Fra Sebastian may be a real Christian, after all. He not only
offers, but he says it must be this way: As soon as 'top-lofty' can be
safely moved, he wants him to the sannytarium to his mission. Him and
Ferd, the dwarf, likewise. He says them old Californys all belong to
him, and he will look after them. Antonio is to be in the sanny-house,
and Ferd is to be put into the mission school. Though he's a man in
years, he's a child in learning--'cept evil. So Fra proposes to oust
the evil if he can--I wager he'll find he's got a job--and put in
good. He'll make Antonio earn his keep a-writin' up the books and
accounts, for, with all his silliness, he's a master hand at
figurin'--for himself. So that settles them, and don't you dast say no
to the arrangement when it's perposed to you, Gabriella Trent, or I'l