a very elegant monument, and my
sister Dailey was always great for show. She'd just been out to see the
monument the week before she was taken down, and admired it so much that
they felt sure of her wishes."

"So she's really gone, and the funeral was up to Lynn!" repeated Mrs.
Todd, as if to impress the sad fact upon her mind. "She was some years
younger than we be, too. I recollect the first day she ever came to
school; 'twas that first year mother sent me inshore to stay with aunt
Topham's folks and get my schooling. You fetched little Louisa to school
one Monday mornin' in a pink dress an' her long curls, and she set
between you an' me, and got cryin' after a while, so the teacher sent us
home with her at recess."

"She was scared of seeing so many children about her; there was only her
and me and brother John at home then; the older boys were to sea with
father, an' the rest of us wa'n't born," explained Mrs. Fosdick. "That
next fall we all went to sea together. Mother was uncertain till the
last minute, as one may say. The ship was waiting orders, but the baby
that then was, was born just in time, and there was a long spell of
extra bad weather, so mother got about again before they had to sail,
an' we all went. I remember my clothes were all left ashore in the east
chamber in a basket where mother'd took them out o' my chist o' drawers
an' left 'em ready to carry aboard. She didn't have nothing aboard, of
her own, that she wanted to cut up for me, so when my dress wore out she
just put me into a spare suit o' John's, jacket and trousers. I wasn't
but eight years old an' he was most seven and large of his age. Quick
as we made a port she went right ashore an' fitted me out pretty, but
we was bound for the East Indies and didn't put in anywhere for a good
while. So I had quite a spell o' freedom. Mother made my new skirt
long because I was growing, and I poked about the deck after that, real
discouraged, feeling the hem at my heels every minute, and as if youth
was past and gone. I liked the trousers best; I used to climb the
riggin' with 'em and frighten mother till she said an' vowed she'd never
take me to sea again."

I thought by the polite absent-minded smile on Mrs. Todd's face this was
no new story.

"Little Louisa was a beautiful child; yes, I always thought Louisa was
very pretty," Mrs. Todd said. "She was a dear little girl in those
days. She favored your mother; the rest of you took after your father