ere so very poor that they had nothing in the world to
eat but potatoes and salt. One day a friend went to see them, and when
he sat down to their humble meal of roasted potatoes, he was moved with
pity, and told them he was very sorry to see them so poor.

"Then one of the old ladies rolled up her eyes, and said, 'I was just
a-thinkin', neighbor, that this meal is altogether too good for us,
we're _so_ unworthy! I only wish the potatoes was froze!'"

The children laughed.

"But I shouldn't like that old lady, though. I know how she looked: it
was just this way," said Prudy, drawing down her mouth, and looking
cross-eyed.

"She didn't want the potatoes frozed," added Dotty; "for if she did,
she might have laid 'em out doors all night, and they'd have freezed as
hard as a stick."

Grandma Read had a thought just then, though she did not express it. She
was thinking what a contrast this cheerful family presented to another
"burnt-out" family, who had this very day moved into a house across the
street. The mother she had seen from the window, and she looked
perfectly discouraged. The children were fretful, and it seemed as if
they were all trying, with one accord, to see which could do most to
make the new home disagreeable.

"I should say they freeze their potatoes," thought Mrs. Read.

She meant that, instead of trying to improve matters, they only made
them worse.

After supper, just as the Parlins were sitting down for a quiet
evening, the door-bell rang furiously, and shook for a minute
afterwards, as if it were in an ague-fit. Who had come to break up the
family harmony?

I will tell you in the next chapter.

CHAPTER X.

A SURPRISE.

Norah went to the door, hardly expecting to find any one there; for when
the bell pealed in that violent manner, it was often some roguish boy
who rang it, and then ran away. But this time, to her amazement, there
stood on the door-step and in the yard as many as twenty boys and girls.

"Is Miss Susy Parlin at home?" said one of them.

"And Miss Prudy?" added another.

"She is--I mean they are. Will you please walk in?"

As Norah spoke, she swung open the parlor door, too much "fluttered,"
as she afterwards said, to announce the arrival in due form. The guests
poured in with all speed. Susy sprang up as suddenly as if the piano
stool were exploding; but what to say she did not know, and stood still
in dumb surprise. Prudy caught her by the skirts, and whisper