sh ones."

"But just think what a dull world it would be if everyone was
sensible," pleaded Anne.

Miss Cornelia disdained any skirmish of flippant epigram.

"Mrs. Roderick was a Milgrave, and the Milgraves never had much sense.
Her nephew, Ebenezer Milgrave, used to be insane for years. He
believed he was dead and used to rage at his wife because she wouldn't
bury him. _I_'d a-done it."

Miss Cornelia looked so grimly determined that Anne could almost see
her with a spade in her hand.

"Don't you know ANY good husbands, Miss Bryant?"

"Oh, yes, lots of them--over yonder," said Miss Cornelia, waving her
hand through the open window towards the little graveyard of the church
across the harbor.

"But living--going about in the flesh?" persisted Anne.

"Oh, there's a few, just to show that with God all things are
possible," acknowledged Miss Cornelia reluctantly. "I don't deny that
an odd man here and there, if he's caught young and trained up proper,
and if his mother has spanked him well beforehand, may turn out a
decent being. YOUR husband, now, isn't so bad, as men go, from all I
hear. I s'pose"--Miss Cornelia looked sharply at Anne over her
glasses--"you think there's nobody like him in the world."

"There isn't," said Anne promptly.

"Ah, well, I heard another bride say that once," sighed Miss Cornelia.
"Jennie Dean thought when she married that there wasn't anybody like
HER husband in the world. And she was right--there wasn't! And a good
thing, too, believe ME! He led her an awful life--and he was courting
his second wife while Jennie was dying.

"Wasn't that like a man? However, I hope YOUR confidence will be
better justified, dearie. The young doctor is taking real well. I was
afraid at first he mightn't, for folks hereabouts have always thought
old Doctor Dave the only doctor in the world. Doctor Dave hadn't much
tact, to be sure--he was always talking of ropes in houses where
someone had hanged himself. But folks forgot their hurt feelings when
they had a pain in their stomachs. If he'd been a minister instead of
a doctor they'd never have forgiven him. Soul-ache doesn't worry folks
near as much as stomach-ache. Seeing as we're both Presbyterians and
no Methodists around, will you tell me your candid opinion of OUR
minister?"

"Why--really--I--well," hesitated Anne.

Miss Cornelia nodded.

"Exactly. I agree with you, dearie. We made a mistake when we called
HIM. His face ju