o test its sufficiency. Dame
Tourtelot was eminently such a person.

"It's a dreadful blow to ye, Mr. Johns," said she, "I know it is. Almiry
is a'most as much took down by it as you are. 'She was such a lovely
woman,' she says; and the poor, dear little boy,--won't you let him come
and pass a day or two with us? Almiry is very fond of children."

"Later, later, my good woman," says the parson. "I can't spare the boy
now; the house is too empty."

"Oh, Mr. Johns,--the poor lonely thing!" (And she says this, with her
hands in black mits, clasped together.) "It's a bitter blow! As I was
a-sayin' to the Deacon, 'Such a lovely young woman, and such a good
comfortable home, and she, poor thing, enjoyin' it so much!' I do hope
you'll bear up under it, Mr. Johns."

"By God's help, I will, my good woman."

Dame Tourtelot was disappointed to find the parson wincing so little as
he did under her stimulative sympathy. On returning home, she opened her
views to the Deacon in this style:--

"Tourtelot, the parson is not so much broke down by this as we've been
thinkin'; he was as cool, when I spoke to him to-day, as any man I ever
see in my life. The truth is, she was a flighty young person, noways
equal to the parson. I've been a-suspectin' it this long while; she
never, in my opinion, took a real hard hold upon him. But, Tourtelot,
you should go and see Mr. Johns; and I hope you'll talk consolingly and
Scripterally to him. It's your duty."

And hereupon she shifted the needles in her knitting, and, smoothing
down the big blue stocking-leg over her knee, cast a glance at the
Deacon which signified command. The dame was thoroughly mistress in her
own household, as well as in the households of not a few of her
neighbors. Long before, the meek, mild-mannered little man who was her
husband had by her active and resolute negotiation been made a deacon of
the parish,--for which office he was not indeed ill-fitted, being
religiously disposed, strict in his observance of all duties, and
well-grounded in the Larger Catechism. He had, moreover, certain secular
endowments which were even more marked,--among them, a wonderful
instinct at a bargain, which had been polished by Dame Tourtelot's
superior address to a wonderful degree of sharpness; and by reason of
this the less respectful of the townspeople were accustomed to say, "The
Deacon is very small at home, but great in a trade." Not that the Deacon
could by any means be called an