make humming sounds, and Ben
must know how poor we are. I am glad that his heart is turning home
again, after his _scattering_ adventures with the Governor. It is not
every one who goes to sea without a rudder that gets back to port
again."

Jenny dreamed daily of the coming ship and present. The ship came in,
and one evening at dark an old sailor knocked at the door. He presently
came in and announced that they had a "boxed-up" thing for one Jane
Franklin on board the ship. Should he send it by the cartman to the
house?

"Yes, yes!" cried Jenny. "Now I know it is a spinet I heard humming--I
told you about it, mother."

The girl awaited the arrival of the gift with a flushed cheek and a
beating heart. It came at last, and was brought in by candlelight.

It was indeed a "boxed-up" thing.

The family gathered around it--the father and mother, the boys and the
girls.

Josiah Franklin broke open the box with his great claw hammer, which
might have pleased an Ajax.

"O Jenny!" he exclaimed, "that will make a humming indeed. Ben has not
lost his wits yet--or he has found them again."

"What is it? What is it, father?"

"The most sensible thing in all the world. See there, it is a
spinning-wheel!"

Jane's heart sank within her. Her dreams vanished into the air--the
delights of the return of Sindbad the Sailor were not to be hers yet.
The boys giggled. She covered her face with her hands to hide her
confusion and to gain heart.

"I don't care," she said at last, choking. "I think Ben is real good,
and I will _forgive him_. I can spin. The wheel is a beauty."

The gift was accompanied by a letter. In it Benjamin told her that he
had heard that she had been much praised for her beauty, but that it was
industry and modesty that most merited commendation in a young girl. The
counsel was as homely as much of that that Uncle Benjamin used to give
little Benjamin, but she choked down her feelings.

"Benjamin was thinking of you as well as of me when he sent me that
present," she said to her mother. "I will make music with the wheel, and
the humming will make us all happy. I think that Ben is real good--and a
spinet would have been out of place here. I will write him a beautiful
letter in return, and will not tell him how I had hoped for a spinet. It
is all better as it is. That is best which will do the most good."

If Franklin sent a practical spinning-wheel to Jenny when she was a
girl, with much advice in which