trip leads straight up to it; the ministers
always go up that side, and it does look forlorn."

"That's so! And all the more because my pew, that's exactly opposite in
the left wing, is new carpeted and cushioned," replied the president. "I
think it's real generous of you, Nancy, because the Riverboro folks,
knowing that you're a member of the carpet committee, will be sure to
notice, and think it's queer you haven't made an effort to carpet your
own pew."

"Never mind!" smiled Nancy wearily. "Riverboro folks never go to bed on
Saturday nights without wondering what Edgewood is thinking about them!"

The minister's wife stood at her window watching Nancy as she passed the
parsonage.

"How wasted! How wasted!" she sighed. "Going home to eat her lonely
supper and feed 'Zekiel . . . I can bear it for the others, but not for
Nancy . . . Now she has lighted her lamp, now she has put fresh pine on
the fire, for new smoke comes from the chimney. Why should I sit down
and serve my dear husband, and Nancy feed 'Zekiel?"

There was some truth in Mrs. Baxter's feeling. Mrs. Buzzell, for
instance, had three sons; Maria Sharp was absorbed in her lame father and
her Sunday-school work; and Lobelia Brewster would not have considered
matrimony a blessing, even under the most favourable conditions. But
Nancy was framed and planned for other things, and 'Zekiel was an
insufficient channel for her soft, womanly sympathy and her bright
activity of mind and body.

'Zekiel had lost his tail in a mowing-machine; 'Zekiel had the asthma,
and the immersion of his nose in milk made him sneeze, so he was wont to
slip his paw in and out of the dish and lick it patiently for five
minutes together. Nancy often watched him pityingly, giving him kind and
gentle words to sustain his fainting spirit, but to-night she paid no
heed to him, although he sneezed violently to attract her attention.

She had put her supper on the lighted table by the kitchen window and was
pouring out her cup of tea, when a boy rapped at the door. "Here's a
paper and a letter, Miss Wentworth," he said. "It's the second this
week, and they think over to the store that that Berwick widower must be
settin' up and takin' notice!"

She had indeed received a letter the day before, an unsigned
communication, consisting only of the words, "Second Epistle of John.
Verse 12."

She had taken her Bible to look out the reference and found it to be:--

"Having many thi