ded his theory, and the governor only remarked that he would
be cured of that sooner or later, and the sooner the better.

The next morning John had a letter from his sister. Part of it ran
about thus:

"I've concluded, old fellow, that if you don't marry you'll dry up and
turn to parchment. I'm going to bring home with me the smartest girl I
know. She reads Carlyle, and quotes Goethe, and understands Emerson. Of
course she don't know what I am up to, but you must prepare to
capitulate."

John did not like Amanda's assuming to pick a wife for him, but he did
like the prospect of meeting a clever girl, and he opened the letter
again to make sure that he had not misunderstood. He read again,
"understands Emerson." John was pleased. Why? I think I can divine.
John was vain of his own abilities, and he wanted a woman that could
appreciate him. He would have told you that he wanted congenial
society. But congenial female society to an ambitious man whose heart
is yet untouched is only society that, in some sense, understands his
greatness and admires his wisdom.

In the old home they were looking for the son. The family proper
consisted of the father, good Deacon Harlow, John's two brothers, ten
and twelve years old, and Huldah, the "help." This last was the
daughter of a neighboring farmer who was poor and hopelessly rheumatic,
and most of the daughter's hard earnings went to eke out the scanty
subsistence at home. Aunt Judith, the sister of John's mother, "looked
after" the household affairs of her brother-in-law, by coming over once
a week and helping Huldah darn and mend and make, and by giving Huldah
such advice as her inexperience was supposed to require. But now Deacon
Harlow's daughter had left her husband to eat his turkey alone in
Boston, and had brought her two children home to receive the paternal
blessing. Not that Mrs. Amanda Holmes had the paternal blessing chiefly
in view in her trip. She had brought with her a very dear friend, Miss
Janet Dunton, the accomplished teacher in the Mount Parnassus Female
Seminary. Why Miss Janet Dunton came to the country with her friend she
could hardly have told. Not a word had Mrs. Holmes spoken to her on the
subject of the matrimonial scheme. She would have resented any allusion
to such a project. She would have repelled any insinuation that she had
ever dreamed that marriage was desirable under any conceivable
circumstances. It is a way we have of teaching girls to lie.