ty, and all the cream was in his plate.

"May I go and fetch some more?" she asked.

"No, Mechtild, no! Why, this is a regular yellow sea!"

"You wouldn't cry 'enough!'"

"I forgot about it," he replied, somewhat confused. "To atone for my
forgetfulness, I will eat it all."

"I hope you will relish it, Mr. Seraphin!"

"Thank you! Where is your plate?"

"I had my dinner before you came."

"Well, then, at any rate you must not continue standing. Won't you
share this seat with me?"

She seated herself upon the bench, took off her hat, smoothed down her
apron, and appeared happy at seeing him eating heartily.

"Don't you find that dish refreshing, Mr. Seraphin?"

"You have done me a real act of charity," he replied. "This bread, is
excellent. Who taught you how to make bread?"

"I learned from mother; but there isn't much art in making that sort of
bread, Mr. Seraphin. The food which people in the country eat does not
require artistic preparation. It only needs good, pure material, so
that it may give strength to labor."

"I suppose you attend to the kitchen altogether, do you not?"

"Yes, Mr. Seraphin. That's not very difficult, our meals are of the
plainest kind. We have meat once a week, on Sundays. When the work is
unusually hard, as in harvest time, we have meat oftener. We raise our
own meat and cure it."

"You have assumed household cares at quite an early age, Mechtild."

"Early? I am seventeen now, and am the oldest. Mother has a great deal
of trouble with the small ones, so the housework falls chiefly to my
share. It does not require any great exertion, however, to do it. Plain
and saving is our motto. Mother specially recommends four things:
industry, cleanliness, order, and economy. She advises me not to
neglect any one of these points when once I will have a household of my
own."

"Do you think you will soon set up a separate household?" asked he with
some hesitation.

"Not for some time to come, Mr. Seraphin, yet it must be done one day.
If my own inclination were consulted, I would prefer never to leave
home. I should like things to continue as they are. But a separation
must come. Death will pay us a visit as it has done to others, father
and mother will pass away, and the course of events will sever us from
one another."

Her head sank, the brightness of her face became obscured beneath the
shadow of these sombre thoughts, and, when she again looked up, there
appeared in her eyes so