r in Shady
Dale without Miss Fanny to give it shape and form, to suggest games, and
to make it certain that the timid ones should have their fair share of
the enjoyment. Indeed, the community would have been a very dull one but
for Miss Fanny; in return for which the young people conferred the
distinction of kinship on her by calling her Aunt Fanny. She had
remained single because her youngest brother, Pulaski, was unmarried,
and needed some one to take care of him, so she said. But she had
another brother, Silas Tomlin, who was twice a widower, and who seemed
to need some one to take care of him, for he presented a very mean and
miserable appearance.

It chanced that when Miss Fanny called, Gabriel was studying his
lessons, using the dining-room table as a desk, and he was able to hear
the conversation that ensued. Miss Fanny stood on no ceremony in
entering. The front door was open and she entered without knocking,
saying, "If there's nobody at home I'll carry the house away. Where are
you, Lucy?"

"In my room, Fanny; come right in."

"How are you, and how is the high and mighty Gabriel?" Having received
satisfactory answers to her friendly inquiries, Miss Fanny plunged at
once into the business that had brought her out so early. "What do you
think, Lucy? Margaret Gaither and her daughter have returned. They are
at the Gaither Place, and Miss Polly has just told me that there isn't a
mouthful to eat in the house--and there is Margaret at the point of
death! Why, it is dreadful. Something must be done at once, that's
certain. I wouldn't have bothered you, but you know what the
circumstances are. I don't know what Margaret's feelings are with
respect to me; you know we never were bosom friends. Yet I never really
disliked her, and now, after all that has happened, I couldn't bear to
think that she was suffering for anything. Likely enough she would be
embarrassed if I called and offered assistance. What is to be done?"

"Wouldn't it be best for some one to call--some one who was her
friend?" The cool, level voice of Gabriel's grandmother seemed to clear
the atmosphere. "Whatever is to be done should be done sympathetically.
If I could see Polly, there would be no difficulty."

"Well, I saw Miss Polly," said Miss Fanny, "and she told me the whole
situation, and I was on the point of saying that I'd run back home and
send something over, when an upper window was opened, and Margaret
Gaither's daughter stood there ga