mation, for it
made me very unhappy. It grieved me much to learn that Willie was
self-exiled from his home and friends.

CHAPTER XVI.

MISS SIMMONDS' STORY.

The fifteenth of September found me again installed in my position as
teacher in my school at Mill Town. I still continued to board in the
family of Parson Northwood. I retained all my former pupils, with the
addition of several new ones.

Miss Simmonds had often invited me to pay her a visit in her home at
Littleton, but I had as yet found no convenient opportunity for so
doing. One Friday evening I decided to pay the long promised visit, and
remain over the Sabbath with Miss Simmonds. She seemed very glad to see
me, and gave me a friendly welcome to her humble home. But, humble as it
was, it presented a picture of neatness and cozy comfort. After tea, and
when her light household duties had all been carefully performed, we
seated ourselves by a cheerful fire in her little sitting-room, and
prepared to spend the long evening in social conversation. I had always
been very fond of the company of Miss Simmonds. Her conversational
powers were very good, and she was sufficiently well informed to render
her a very agreeable companion. As the night closed in, one of those
violent storms of wind and rain came on, which are so frequent in the
Eastern States during the month of November. The beating of the storm
without caused our warm and well-lighted room to seem all the more
cheerful. As the evening advanced I observed that Miss Simmonds grew
thoughtful; and, although she endeavored to be social, it was evident
that her mind was occupied by something else than the subject of
conversation. After a short silence, she addressed me suddenly,
saying,--

"I feel inclined, Clara, to relate a story to you, which at least has
the merit of truth; for it is a chapter from my own life."

I gladly assented to listen to her story, for since I first met Miss
Simmonds I had entertained an idea that there was something of romance
attached to her life.

"Thirty years ago," began Miss Simmonds, "I was not the faded,
care-worn woman which you now see before you. I was born in this
village. My parents were poor but industrious people. They were blessed
with two children, myself, and a brother, who was two years younger than
I; but, ere he reached the age of ten, we were called to lay him in the
grave, leaving me the sole comfort and joy of my bereaved parents. They
had very