nhappy to have you be unkind to her," answered Hetty, firmly. "She
and her husband both, have done all in their power to atone for their
wrong; and nobody has ever said a word against Mrs. Little since her
marriage; and one thing I want distinctly understood, Nan, by every one
on this place,--any disrespectful word or look towards Mr. or Mrs.
Little will be just the same as if it were towards me myself."

Nan was silenced, but her face wore an obstinate expression which gave
Hetty some misgivings as to the success of her experiment. However, she
knew that Nan could be trusted to repeat to the other servants all that
she had said, and that it would lose nothing in the recital; and, as for
the future, one of Hetty's first principles of action was an old proverb
which her grandfather had explained to her when she was a little girl,--

"Don't cross bridges till you come to them."

III.

The gratitude with which James Little's wife received Hetty's
proposition was so great that it softened even her father-in-law's
heart.

"I do believe, Hetty," he said, when he gave her their answer, "I do
believe that poor girl has suffered more'n we've given her credit for.
When I explained to her that you was goin' to take her right in to be
like one o' your own family, she turned as white as a sheet, and says
she,--

"'You don't mean it, father: she won't ever dare to:' and when I said,
says I,--

"'Yes, she does: Hetty Gunn ain't a girl not to know what she means to
do. And that's just what she says she's goin' to do with you and Jim,'
she broke right out crying, out loud, just like a little baby, and says
she,--

"'If the Lord don't bless Hetty Gunn for bein' so good to us! she
sha'n't ever be sorry for it's long's she lives.'"

"Of course I sha'n't," said Hetty, bluntly. "I never was sorry yet for
any thing I did which was right, and I am as sure this is right as I am
that I am alive. When will they come?"

"Sarah said she would come right over to-day, if you'd like to have her
help you; and Jim he could fix up things at home, and shut the house up.
Jim said they'd better not let the house till you had tried how it
worked havin' 'em here. Jim don't seem very sanguine about it. Poor
fellow, he's got the spirit all taken out of him."

"Well, well, we'll put it back again, see if we don't, before the year
is out," replied Hetty, with a beaming smile, which made her face
beautiful.

It happened fortunately that poo