lways gentle,
and shrank from giving pain. Truthful and puritanical as she was in her
ideas, she had the tact, the knowledge to say things without hurting
those whom she corrected. She corrected me often and often, when we were
young, but she hurt me--never. Now, you--heigho!"

"Now, I hurt--thee. Of course. I speak first and think afterward. But
does thee know, cousin Archibald, thee is the very queerest man I ever
met?"

"Have you--has thee--known many?"

"Very few. Thee is so good on one side and so--so--not nice on the
other. Like a half-ripened pear. But I am sorry for thee. I wish I could
do thee good. Do I speak it as thee wishes?"

"Indeed, yes. It is music, even though the words are unflattering
enough. Well, I'll not keep thee longer. And I don't ask you to call
attention to this whim of mine by saying 'thee' in public," he remarked,
himself falling back into the habit of their intercourse.

"No; if I say 'thee,' it is to be always, whenever I remember--like a
bond to remind me I must be kind to thee for my mother's sake. If she
did thee good, I must try to do thee good too."

"In what way?"

Amy reflected. The first, most obvious way, would be by cheering his
solitude. Yet she hesitated. The thing which had come into her mind
involved the desires of others also. She had no right, until she
consulted them, to commit herself. Yet she disliked to leave this lonely
old fellow, without trying to make him glad.

She sat down again in the chair from which she had risen and regarded
him critically.

"Oh, cousin Archibald, if thee were only a little bit different!"

"Thee, too!" he laughed--actually laughed; and the action seemed to
clear his features like a sunburst.

"Oh, of course. Well, it's this way. To-morrow's Christmas, isn't it?"

"So I've heard."

"And somebody--Teamster John--has sent Cleena 'the furnishing of a good
dinner,' she told me. I don't know when we may have another such a meal,
one that thee would think fit to eat. I'd like to ask thee to come and
share it with us, instead of staying here alone, all grumpy with the
gout. But it isn't my dinner, thee sees, and I'm going home to tell my
people everything. About the picture and the donkey and all. If, after
that, they agree with me that it would be nice to ask thee to spend the
holiday with us, I'll bring thee word. If I do, will thee come?"

Mr. Wingate leaned back in his easy-chair and hugged his gouty foot for
so long and so sil