" snorted Miss Roxy; "so does a rock-maple get
color in September and turn all scarlet, and what for? why, the frost
has been at it, and its time is out. That's what your bright colors
stand for. Hain't you noticed that little gravestone cough, jest the
faintest in the world, and it don't come from a cold, and it hangs on. I
tell you you can't cheat me, she's goin' jest as Mehitabel went, jest as
Sally Ann Smith went, jest as Louisa Pearson went. I could count now on
my fingers twenty girls that have gone that way. Nobody saw 'em goin'
till they was gone."

"Well, now, I don't think the old folks have the least idea on't," said
Miss Ruey. "Only last Saturday Mis' Pennel was a-talkin' to me about the
sheets and tablecloths she's got out a-bleachin'; and she said that the
weddin' dress was to be made over to Mis' Mosely's in Portland, 'cause
Moses he's so particular about havin' things genteel."

"Well, Master Moses'll jest have to give up his particular notions,"
said Miss Roxy, "and come down in the dust, like all the rest on us,
when the Lord sends an east wind and withers our gourds. Moses Pennel's
one of the sort that expects to drive all before him with the strong
arm, and sech has to learn that things ain't to go as they please in the
Lord's world. Sech always has to come to spots that they can't get over
nor under nor round, to have their own way, but jest has to give right
up square."

"Well, Roxy," said Miss Ruey, "how does the poor little thing take it?
Has she got reconciled?"

"Reconciled! Ruey, how you do ask questions!" said Miss Roxy, fiercely
pulling a bandanna silk handkerchief out of her pocket, with which she
wiped her eyes in a defiant manner. "Reconciled! It's easy enough to
talk, Ruey, but how would you like it, when everything was goin' smooth
and playin' into your hands, and all the world smooth and shiny, to be
took short up? I guess you wouldn't be reconciled. That's what I guess."

"Dear me, Roxy, who said I should?" said Miss Ruey. "I wa'n't blamin'
the poor child, not a grain."

"Well, who said you was, Ruey?" answered Miss Roxy, in the same high
key.

"You needn't take my head off," said Aunt Ruey, roused as much as her
adipose, comfortable nature could be. "You've been a-talkin' at me ever
since you came in from the sink-room, as if I was to blame; and snappin'
at me as if I hadn't a right to ask civil questions; and I won't stan'
it," said Miss Ruey. "And while I'm about it, I'll s