e one morning and was told that she was a young woman,
or dreamt that she was told. Anyhow, she realised, all of a sudden, that
she was now too tall for short dresses, and too old to be playing with
the boys as if she were one of them; and the consciousness of this
change gave her many a bad quarter of an hour, and sometimes made her a
trifle irritable; for, sweet as she was, she had a temper.

She asked herself a thousand times why she should now begin to feel shy
of Gabriel, and why she should be so self-conscious, she who had never
thought of herself with any degree of seriousness until now. It was all
a puzzle to her. As it was with Nan, so it was with Gabriel. As Nan grew
shy and shyer, so the newly-awakened Gabriel grew more and more and
more timid, and the two soon found themselves very far apart without
knowing why. For a long time Cephas was the only connecting link between
them. He was a sly little rascal, this same Cephas, and he found in the
situation food for both curiosity and amusement. He had not the least
notion why the two friends and comrades were inclined to avoid each
other. He only knew that he was not having as pleasant a time as fell to
his portion when they were all going about together with no serious
notions of life or conduct.

Cephas got no satisfaction from either Nan or Gabriel when he asked them
what the trouble was. Nan tried to explain matters, but her explanation
was a very lame one. "I am getting old enough to be serious, Cephas; and
I must begin to make myself useful. That's what Miss Polly Gaither says,
and she's old enough to know. Oh, I hate it all!" said Nan.

"Is Miss Polly Gaither useful?" inquired Cephas.

"I'm sure I don't know," replied Nan; "but that's what she told me, and
then she held up her ear-trumpet for me to talk in it; but I just
couldn't, she looked so very much in earnest. It was all I could do to
keep from laughing. Did you ever notice, Cephas, how funny people are
when they are really in earnest?"

Alas! Cephas had often pinched himself in Sunday-school to keep from
laughing at old Mrs. Crafton, his teacher. She was so dreadfully in
earnest that she kept her face in a pucker the whole time. Outside of
the Sunday-school she was a very pleasant old lady.

Gabriel had no explanation to make whatever. He simply told Cephas that
Nan was becoming vain. This Cephas denied with great emphasis, but
Gabriel only shook his head and looked wise, as much as to say that