nd girls, who have always known each other as plain Susan or Joseph,
first meet as "Mr." or "Miss" So-and-so. Each one feels half disposed,
half afraid, to return to the old familiar form, and awkwardly fettered
by the recollection that they are no longer children. Both parties had
felt this the evening before, when they met in company; but now that
they were alone together, the feeling became still stronger; and when
Susan had requested Mr. Adams to take a chair, and Mr. Adams had
inquired after Miss Susan's health, there ensued a pause, which, the
longer it continued, seemed the more difficult to break, and during
which Susan's pretty face slowly assumed an expression of the ludicrous,
till she was as near laughing as propriety would admit; and Mr. Adams,
having looked out at the window, and up at the mantel-piece, and down at
the carpet, at last looked at Susan; their eyes met; the effect was
electrical; they both smiled, and then laughed outright, after which the
whole difficulty of conversation vanished.

"Susan," said Joseph, "do you remember the old school house?"

"I thought that was what you were thinking of," said Susan; "but,
really, you have grown and altered so that I could hardly believe my
eyes last night."

"Nor I mine," said Joseph, with a glance that gave a very complimentary
turn to the expression.

Our readers may imagine that after this the conversation proceeded to
grow increasingly confidential and interesting; that from the account of
early life, each proceeded to let the other know something of
intervening history, in the course of which each discovered a number of
new and admirable traits in the other, such things being matters of very
common occurrence. In the course of the conversation Joseph discovered
that it was necessary that Susan should have two or three books then in
his possession; and as promptitude is a great matter in such cases, he
promised to bring them "to-morrow."

For some time our young friends pursued their acquaintance without a
distinct consciousness of any thing except that it was a very pleasant
thing to be together. During the long, still afternoons, they rambled
among the fading woods, now illuminated with the radiance of the dying
year, and sentimentalized and quoted poetry; and almost every evening
Joseph found some errand to bring him to the house; a book for Miss
Susan, or a bundle of roots and herbs for Miss Silence, or some
remarkably fine yarn for her to kn