e boards, they are so clean."

The rain was now coming down in torrents, and the two young
ladies gladly followed their mother's example, and entered
the neat and cleanly dwelling. Their long hair hung dangling
about their ears, their crape bonnets had been screened in
vain by their fringed parasols, and the skirts of their silk
gowns were draggled with mud. They all three began to stamp
upon the door of the room into which they had entered with
very little ceremony; but the good-natured mistress of the
house felt more for their disaster than for her floor, and
came forward at once to console and assist them. She brought
forth clean cloths from the dresser-drawer, and she and her
two daughters set to work to wipe off, with quick and
delicate care, the rain-drops and mud-splashes from the
silken dresses of the three fine ladies. The crape hats and
the parasols were carefully dried at a safe distance from the
fire, and a comb was offered to arrange the uncurled hair,
such a white and delicately clean comb as may seldom be seen
upon a poor woman's toilet.

When all had been done that could be done, and, as Miss Lucy
said, "they began to look themselves again," Mrs. Crowder,
who was lolling back at her ease in a large and comfortable
arm-chair, and amusing herself by taking a good stare at
every thing and every one in the room, suddenly started
forward, and cried out, addressing herself to the master of
the house, upon whose Bible and at whose face she had been
last fixing her gaze, "Why, my good man, we are old friends:
I know your face, I'm certain; still, there is some change in
you, though I can't exactly say what it is."

"I used to be in ragged clothes, and out of health," said
George Manly, smiling, as he looked up from his Bible; "I am
now, blessed be God for it, comfortably clad, and in
excellent health."

"But how is it," said Mrs. Crowder, "that we never catch a
sight of you now?"

"Madam," said be, "I'm sure I wish well to you and all
people; nay, I have reason to thank you, for words of yours
were the first means of opening my eyes to my own foolish and
sinful course. You seem to thrive--so do we. My wife and
children were half-naked and half-starved only this time last
year. Look at them, if you please, now; for, so far as sweet,
contented