great deal more like that than Mara."

"There's no doubt that Sally is smart," said Mrs. Badger, "but then it
ain't every one can do like you, Mrs. Eaton."

"Oh no, oh no," was murmured from mouth to mouth; "Mrs. Eaton mustn't
think she's any rule for others,--everybody knows she can do more than
most people;" whereat the pacified Mrs. Eaton said "she didn't know as
it was anything remarkable,--it showed what anybody might do, if they'd
only _try_ and have resolution; but that Mara never had been brought up
to have resolution, and her mother never had resolution before her, it
wasn't in any of Mary Pennel's family; she knew their grandmother and
all their aunts, and they were all a weakly set, and not fitted to get
along in life,--they were a kind of people that somehow didn't seem to
know how to take hold of things."

At this moment the consultation was hushed up by the entrance of Sally
Kittridge and Mara, evidently on the closest terms of intimacy, and more
than usually demonstrative and affectionate; they would sit together and
use each other's needles, scissors, thread, and thimbles
interchangeably, as if anxious to express every minute the most
overflowing confidence. Sly winks and didactic nods were covertly
exchanged among the elderly people, and when Mrs. Kittridge entered with
more than usual airs of impressive solemnity, several of these were
covertly directed toward her, as a matron whose views in life must have
been considerably darkened by the recent event.

Mrs. Kittridge, however, found an opportunity to whisper under her
breath to Miss Ruey what a relief to her it was that the affair had
taken such a turn. She had felt uneasy all summer for fear of what might
come. Sally was so thoughtless and worldly, she felt afraid that he
would lead her astray. She didn't see, for her part, how a professor of
religion like Mara could make up her mind to such an unsettled kind of
fellow, even if he did seem to be rich and well-to-do. But then she had
done looking for consistency; and she sighed and vigorously applied
herself to quilting like one who has done with the world.

In return, Miss Ruey sighed and took snuff, and related for the
hundredth time to Mrs. Kittridge the great escape she once had from the
addresses of Abraham Peters, who had turned out a "poor drunken
creetur." But then it was only natural that Mara should be interested in
Moses; and the good soul went off into her favorite verse:--

"T