t won't cost nigh as much as pine
lumber, and it's every bit as good."

Even Dame Tourtelot would have been satisfied with the politic way of
the Deacon, both as regarded the wife and the prospective bargain. The
next evening the good woman invited the clergyman--begging him "not to
forget the dear little boy"--to tea.

This was by no means the first hint which the minister had had of the
tendency of village gossip. The Tew partners, with whom he had fallen
upon very easy terms of familiarity,--both by reason of frequent visits
at their little shop, and by reason of their steady attendance upon his
ministrations,--often dropped hints of the smallness of the good man's
grocery account, and insidious hopes that it might be doubled in size at
some day not far off.

Squire Elderkin, too, in his bluff, hearty way, had occasionally
complimented the clergyman upon the increased attendance latterly of
ladies of a certain age, and had drawn his attention particularly to the
ardent zeal of a buxom, middle-aged widow, who lived upon the skirts of
the town, and was "the owner," he said, "of as pretty a piece of
property as lay in the county."

"Have you any knack at farming, Mr. Johns?" continued he, playfully.

"Farming? why?" says the innocent parson, in a maze.

"Because I am of opinion, Mr. Johns, that the widow's little property
might be rented by you, under conditions of joint occupancy, on very
easy terms."

Such badinage was so warded off by the ponderous gravity which the
parson habitually wore, that men like Elderkin loved occasionally to
launch a quiet joke at him, for the pleasure of watching the rebound.

When, however, the wide-spread gossip of the town had taken the shape
(as in the talk of Deacon Tourtelot) of an incentive to duty, the grave
clergyman gave to it his undivided and prayerful attention. It was
over-true that the boy Reuben was running wild. No lad in Ashfield, of
his years, could match him in mischief. There was surely need of womanly
direction and remonstrance. It was eminently proper, too, that the
parsonage, so long closed, should be opened freely to all his flock; and
the truth was so plain, he wondered it could have escaped him so long.
Duty required that his home should have an established mistress; and a
mistress he forthwith determined it should have.

Within three weeks from the day of the tea-drinking with the Tourtelots,
the minister suggested certain changes in the long-deserted c