l the histories we've ever read, all the
tales we've ever heard, of gentlemen and gentlewomen, 'aristocrats,' who
have had to suffer anything dreadful, show that they have borne the
troubles as no meaner person could. The good there is in being of
'family,' it seems to me, is the self-respect that holds us upright, no
matter what blows are dealt."

Again Hallam blew a long note. But he looked at his excited little
sister with a new admiration.

"Upon my word, Amy, my dear, you are positively eloquent. Who knows but
you may one day take to the 'stump,' become a public orator, and
lecture, to fill the coffers of that 'family' of which you are so
proud."

"No, thank you. I don't need to go abroad to lecture. I find enough
subjects right in my own household. Between you and 'Bony' and Miss
Scrubbub my life's a burden to me. Now hear me, both of you; for in the
language of 'Bonaparty Gineral Lafayette,' 'there ain't none o' ye got
no sense 'cept me,' and 'me' says: Fix up the north chamber for a
studio. Put all father's things in there. Fix the middle room, which
faces east and the sunrise, for a bedroom; and this warm southwestern
one for a private sitting room, for mother darling, where she can
retreat to think upon her husband's greatness and her children's folly;
and where the sweet blessed thing will never be alone one single minute,
unless every other member of the family is sound asleep. So that's for
the 'retreating' of Friend Salome Kaye. Oh, that she were here this
minute! that I could hug the heart right out of her! Fly around, Amy,
'an' set the house to one side,' _a la_ Friend Adam's old housekeeper."

It was wonderful what four pairs of arms could accomplish when love
actuated them. "Spite House" had seemed hopelessly bare and dirty when
the little household first entered it, but it was far from that by the
end of a week's stay. Bare and bleak and unadorned it was still, and the
surroundings seemed to forbid that it would ever be any better. But
there was not an inch of its surface, outside or in, that had not been
cleaned and polished, by scrubbing or whitewash brush. Even the
moss-grown roof had been swept by Fayette, standing barefooted and
unsupported on the sloping shingles, while he vigorously attacked them.
To Hallam this seemed a desecration. The moss had been the one redeeming
feature of the roof's ugliness.

"Saints save us! If we leave go that muck up yon, it'll be like me
dressin' for mass an'