ich broke in so pleasantly upon his solitary life at the
boarding-house, where the long table was presided over by his landlady,
with her cap awry and her sleeves rolled to her elbows, while she
gossiped volubly with her boarders, in the intervals of her skirmishes
with the frowsy waiting maid. And Louise? She only knew that she enjoyed
the society of the young doctor, just as her father and Mrs. Pennypoker
appeared to enjoy it; but, all unconsciously to herself, her young life
was rounding out with a new, sweet meaning; and the womanhood opening
before her was daily gaining fresh inspiration and purpose, from the
influence of the true, earnest manhood of their frequent guest.

But the time had slipped away and Christmas was at hand. The week before
the festival found the young people much absorbed in a little
entertainment, to be given for the benefit of some local charity, in
which they were all to take a part. Mr. Nelson had started the project,
and had called upon Dr. Brownlee and Louise to help him form and carry
out his plans. After much discussion, it had been arranged to have an
hour of music and readings, followed by a play in which the doctor and
Louise, Charlie, Marjorie, and Allie should be the actors. The play was
quickly chosen, a little French one which Louise had translated, and
adapted to their meagre resources of costume and scenery; and the
rehearsals had been going on for some weeks, until the success of the
enterprise was sufficiently assured to allow them to announce their
plans and decide upon the date. The dress rehearsal had been held before
a select audience of fathers and mothers, who were hearty in their
praises of the saucy maid and the irrepressible young brother, while
they thoroughly enjoyed the spirited acting of Louise, who, in the
person of the widowed mother, did all that lay in her power to thwart
the flirtations between the doctor and Allie, until her efforts were set
at naught by the disloyalty of her maid and the traditions of amateur
acting, which demand a happy ending to every love affair.

The little hall was well filled, the next evening. Audiences in Blue
Creek were often rather mixed; and, on this particular occasion, rich
and poor, young and old, had gathered, to show their interest in a
worthy cause, and their liking for the young actors, whose unvarying
kindness and courtesy had made them favorites throughout the town. Even
Janey's black face looked on from the background