the house in a state of frantic indignation.

"Amy, Amy," they cried; "Mary Jane gave your gingerbread to a tramp,
and he looked at it and smelled it and tasted it, and then just laid it
on the area steps and ran away. And Jim saw him; and he picked up the
gingerbread, and broke it by throwing it on the sidewalk, and then
threw the pieces at the tramp; and one hit him, and it was so hard it
seemed to hurt him, but he just ran all the faster."

From that time, more than a year since, I had forsworn all manner of
cooking, but now it seemed to me that the exigencies of the case
required me to turn my thoughts to the matter; hence, when it was
proposed, I had been only too ready to join the cooking-class.

The lady who had, from pure love of her kind, and a special interest in
young girls, undertaken to superintend and direct our efforts, was an
old friend of my mother and aunt Emily; the dearest, the sweetest, the
most guileless, of maiden ladies, with a simplicity and lack of worldly
knowledge which were almost childlike, but very talented, and with a
mind intelligent and cultivated to an unusual degree.

She was also famous among us for all kinds of handiwork,--for the
delicious cakes, soups, and all manner of dishes which she could
concoct; for her painting and drawing, and her exquisite and original
fancy-work. Simple, although delicate, in her tastes, her personal
wants were but few; and being possessed of a small income, which placed
her beyond the need of employing her varied talents on her own behalf,
she delighted in turning them to account for others. She stood
singularly alone, with no direct family ties or responsibilities; and
probably no human being but herself ever knew the amount of work
accomplished by those slender, high-bred looking hands for the benefit
and delight of others. The beautiful paintings and embroideries which
she sent to the various societies for art work, and which were always
accepted without demur, meeting as they did with an ever ready sale,
brought their profits, not to her, but to others less gifted and more
needy than herself. And many a dainty trifle wrought by her graced some
sick-room, or home of straitened means, where there was neither time
nor talent to be given for such adornment.

Careless as to the prevailing mode, although exceedingly neat about her
own personal attire, she was somewhat quaint and old-fashioned in
appearance; at least, she had been until a short time si