nd the matter can be settled before we sit down
to table."

This ended the discussion, which had commenced under an impulse of
feeling that left us all its auditors. As for my uncle and myself, it is
scarcely necessary to say we were delighted with the little scene. The
benevolent wish to gratify, on the one side, with the natural scruples
on the other, about receiving, made a perfect picture for our
contemplation. The three girls, who were witnesses of what passed, too
much respected Mary's feelings to interfere, though Patt restrained
herself with difficulty. As to Tom Miller and Kitty, they doubtless
wondered why "Warren's gal" was such a fool as to hesitate about
accepting a watch that was worth a hundred dollars. This was another
point they did not understand.

"You spoke of dinner," continued my grandmother, looking at my uncle.
"If you and your companion will follow us to the house, I will pay you
for the watch, and order you a dinner in the bargain."

We were right down glad to accept this offer, making our bows and
expressing our thanks, as the carriage whirled off. We remained a
moment, to take our leave of Miller.

"When you've got through at the Nest," said that semi-worthy fellow,
"give us another call here. I should like my woman and Kitty to have a
look at your finery, before you go down to the village with it."

With a promise to return to the farm-house, we proceeded on our way to
the building which, in the familiar parlance of the country, was called
the Nest, or the Nest House, from Ravensnest, its true name, and which
Tom Miller, in his country dialect, called the "Neest." The distance
between the two buildings was less than half a mile, the grounds of the
family residence lying partly between them. Many persons would have
called the extensive lawns which surrounded my paternal abode a park,
but it never bore that name with us. They were too large for a paddock,
and might very well have come under the former appellation; but, as
deer, or animals of any sort, except those that are domestic, had never
been kept within it, the name had not been used. We called them the
grounds--a term which applies equally to large and small enclosures of
this nature--while the broad expanse of verdure which lies directly
under the windows goes by the name of the lawn. Notwithstanding the
cheapness of land among us, there has been very little progress made in
the art of landscape gardening; and if we have anything