he had to talk to all the workmen in Italian; and I have
heard him say that for nearly two years he had only Italian books to
read in the queer outlandish places he was in.'

'Oh, dear!' said Phillis; 'I wish--' and then she stopped. I was not
quite sure whether to say the next thing that came into my mind; but I
said it.

'Could I ask him anything about your book, or your difficulties?'

She was silent for a minute or so, and then she made reply,--

'No! I think not. Thank you very much, though. I can generally puzzle a
thing out in time. And then, perhaps, I remember it better than if some
one had helped me. I'll put it away now, and you must move off, for
I've got to make the paste for the pies; we always have a cold dinner
on Sabbaths.'

'But I may stay and help you, mayn't I?'

'Oh, yes; not that you can help at all, but I like to have you with
me.' I was both flattered and annoyed at this straightforward avowal. I
was pleased that she liked me; but I was young coxcomb enough to have
wished to play the lover, and I was quite wise enough to perceive that
if she had any idea of the kind in her head she would never have spoken
out so frankly. I comforted myself immediately, however, by finding out
that the grapes were sour. A great tall girl in a pinafore, half a head
taller than I was, reading books that I had never heard of, and talking
about them too, as of far more interest than any mere personal
subjects; that was the last day on which I ever thought of my dear
cousin Phillis as the possible mistress of my heart and life. But we
were all the greater friends for this idea being utterly put away and
buried out of sight.

Late in the evening the minister came home from Hornby. He had been
calling on the different members of his flock; and unsatisfactory work
it had proved to him, it seemed from the fragments that dropped out of
his thoughts into his talk.

'I don't see the men; they are all at their business, their shops, or
their warehouses; they ought to be there. I have no fault to find with
them; only if a pastor's teaching or words of admonition are good for
anything, they are needed by the men as much as by the women.'

'Cannot you go and see them in their places of business, and remind
them of their Christian privileges and duties, minister?' asked cousin
Holman, who evidently thought that her husband's words could never be
out of place.

'No!' said he, shaking his head. 'I judge them by myself. I