'Liphalet Hodges drove
leisurely up to the door again.

"Well, Freddie," he said, as he helped the child to alight, "we 've had
a great time together, we have, an' we ain't frozen, neither: I told
Miss Prime that she need n't be afeared. Don't drop yore jumpin'-jack,
now, an' be keerful an' don't git yore hands on yore apron, 'cause they
're kind o' sticky. Miss Hester 'u'd take our heads off ef we come back
dirty."

The child's arms were full of toys,--a jumping-jack, a climbing monkey,
a popgun, and the etceteras of childish amusement,--and his pockets and
cheeks bulged with candy.

"La, 'Liphalet," exclaimed Miss Prime, when she saw them, "what on airth
have you been a-buyin' that child--jumpin'-jacks an' sich things? They
ain't a bit o' good, 'ceptin' to litter up a house an' put lightness in
childern's minds. Freddie, what 's that on yore apron? Goodness me! an'
look at them hands--candy! 'Liphalet Hodges, I did give you credit fur
better jedgment than this. Candy is the cause o' more aches an' pains
than poison; an' some of it 's reelly coloured with ars'nic. How do you
expect a child to grow up healthy an' with sound teeth when you feed him
on candy?"

"Now, Miss Hester, now, now, now. I don't want to be a-interferin'
with yore bus'ness; but it 's jest like I said before, an' I will
stick to it, you 'ain't never had no experunce in raisin' children.
They can't git along jest on meat an' bread an' jam: they need
candy--an'--ah--candy--an' sich things." Mr. Hodges ended lamely,
looking rather guiltily at the boy's bulging pockets. "A little bit
ain't a-goin' to hurt no child."

"'Liphalet, I 've got a dooty to perform towards this motherless child,
an' I ain't a-goin' to let no foolish notions keep me from performin'
it."

"Miss Hester, I 'm a-tryin' to follow Him that was a father to the
fatherless an' a husband to the widow,--strange, that was made only to
the widow,--an' I 've got somethin' of a idee o' dooty myself. You may
think I 'm purty presumptuous, but I 've took a notion into my head to
kind o' help along a-raisin' Freddie. I ain't a-goin' to question yore
authority, or nothin', but I thought mebbe you 'd len' me the child once
in a while to kind o' lighten up that old lonesome place o' mine: I
know that Freddie won't object."

"Oh, 'Liphalet, do go 'long: I scarcely know whether you air a man or a
child, sometimes."

"There 's One that says, 'Except you become as a little child'--"

"'Lipha