ake you
comfortable, and a nice little house. Now the first thing I want you to
understand is that we are going to live on here in this house, exactly
as we did when my father was here. I shall carry on the farm exactly as
he would if he were alive; that is, as nearly as I can. Now you will
make it very hard for me, if you cry and are lonesome, and say such
things as you said to-night. If you want to please me, you will go right
on with your work cheerfully, and behave just as if your master were
sitting there in his chair all the time. That is what will please him
best, too, if he is looking on, as I don't doubt he very often will be."

"But is you goin' to be here all alone, Miss Hetty? yer don't know what
yer a layin' out for, yer don't," interrupted Nan.

"No," replied Hetty: "Mr. James Little and his wife are coming here to
stay. He will be overseer of the farm."

"What! Her that was Sally Newhall?" exclaimed Nan, in a sharp tone.

"Yes, that was Mrs. Little's name before she was married," replied
Hetty, looking Nan full in the face with a steady expression, intended
to restrain any farther remarks on the subject of Mrs. Little. But Nan
was not to be restrained.

"Before she was married! Yes'm! an' a good deal too late 'twas she was
married too. 'Deed, Miss Hetty, yer ain't never going to take her in to
live with you, be yer?" she muttered.

"Yes, I am, Nan," Hetty said firmly; "and you must never let such a word
as that pass your lips again. You will displease me very much if you do
not treat Mrs. Little respectfully."

"But, Miss Hetty," persisted Nan. "Yer don't know"--

"Yes, I do, Nan: I know it all. But I pity them both very much. We have
all done wrong in one way or another; and it is the Lord's business to
punish people, not ours. You've often told me, Nan, about that pretty
little girl of yours and Caesar's that died when I was a baby. Supposing
she had lived to be a woman, and some one had led her to do just as
wrong as poor Sally Little did, wouldn't you have thought it very hard
if the whole world had turned against her, and never given her a fair
chance again to show that she was sorry and meant to live a good life?"

Nan was softened.

"'Deed would I, Miss Hetty. But that don't make me feel like seein' that
gal a settin' down to table with you, Miss Hetty, now I tell yer! Caesar
nor me couldn't stand that nohow!"

"Yes you can, Nan; and you will, when you know that it would make me
very u