tary
check, for _he_ loved and trusted _everybody_. Willie did not fear his
grandfather, who had never been severe to him, or interfered with Mrs.
Sullivan's management; but he sometimes felt chilled, though he hardly
knew why, by his want of sympathy with his own warm-heartedness. On the
present occasion the conversation turned upon True Flint and his adopted
child. Mr. Cooper had been unusually bitter, and, as he took his lamp to
go to bed, declared that Gerty would never be anything but a trouble to
Flint, who was a fool not to send her to the almshouse at once.

There was a pause after the old man left the room; then Willie
exclaimed, "Mother, what makes grandfather hate folks?"

"Why, he don't, Willie."

"I don't mean exactly _hate_--I don't suppose he does _that, quite_; but
he don't seem to think a great deal of anybody--do you think he does?"

"Oh yes; he does not show it much," said Mrs. Sullivan, "but he thinks a
great deal of you, Willie, and he wouldn't have anything happen to me
for the world; and he likes Mr. Flint, and----"

"Oh yes; but I don't mean that; he doesn't think there's much goodness
in folks, nor to think anybody's going to turn out well, and----"

"You're thinking of what he said about little Gerty."

"Well, she an't the only one. That's what made me speak of it now, but
I've often noticed it before, particularly since I went away from home,
and am only here once a week. Now I think everything of Mr. Bray; and
when I was telling how much good he did, and how kind he was to old Mrs.
Morris and her sick daughter, grandfather looked just as if he didn't
believe it, or didn't think much of it."

"Oh, well, Willie, you mustn't wonder much at that. Grandpa's had many
disappointments. You know he thought everything of Uncle Richard, and
there was no end to the trouble he had with him; and there was Aunt
Sarah's husband--he seemed to be such a fine fellow when Sally married
him, but he cheated father at last, so that he had to mortgage his house
in High Street, and finally gave it up entirely. He's dead now, and I
don't want to say anything against him; but he didn't prove what we
expected, and it broke Sally's heart. That was a dreadful trial to
father, for she was the youngest, and his pet. And just after that,
mother was taken down with her death-stroke, and a quack doctor
prescribed for her, and father always thought that did her more hurt
than good. So that he has had a great deal to mak