nce to hear of it, and then
William comes in to tell me, sighin' and bewailin', how feeble mother
is. 'Why can't you remember 'bout them good herbs that I never let her
be without?' I say to him--he does provoke me so; and then off he goes,
sulky enough, down to his boat. Next thing I know, she comes in to go
to meetin', wantin' to speak to everybody and feelin' like a girl.
Mis' Martin's case is very much the same; but she 's nobody to watch
her. William's kind o' slow-moulded; but there, any William's better
than none when you get to be Mis' Martin's age."

"Hadn't she any children?" I asked.

"Quite a number," replied Mrs. Todd grandly, "but some are gone and the
rest are married and settled. She never was a great hand to go about
visitin'. I don't know but Mis' Martin might be called a little
peculiar. Even her own folks has to make company of her; she never
slips in and lives right along with the rest as if 'twas at home, even
in her own children's houses. I heard one o' her sons' wives say once
she 'd much rather have the Queen to spend the day if she could choose
between the two, but I never thought Abby was so difficult as that. I
used to love to have her come; she may have been sort o' ceremonious,
but very pleasant and sprightly if you had sense enough to treat her
her own way. I always think she 'd know just how to live with great
folks, and feel easier 'long of them an' their ways. Her son's wife 's
a great driver with farm-work, boards a great tableful o' men in hayin'
time, an' feels right in her element. I don't say but she 's a good
woman an' smart, but sort o' rough. Anybody that's gentle-mannered an'
precise like Mis' Martin would be a sort o' restraint.

"There's all sorts o' folks in the country, same 's there is in the
city," concluded Mrs. Todd gravely, and I as gravely agreed. The thick
woods were behind us now, and the sun was shining clear overhead, the
morning mists were gone, and a faint blue haze softened the distance;
as we climbed the hill where we were to see the view, it seemed like a
summer day. There was an old house on the height, facing southward,--a
mere forsaken shell of an old house, with empty windows that looked
like blind eyes. The frost-bitten grass grew close about it like brown
fur, and there was a single crooked bough of lilac holding its green
leaves close by the door.

"We 'll just have a good piece of bread-an'-butter now," said the
commander of the exp