I would sit down on the old
doorstep and rest, and I had barely settled myself when I heard
voices. They came around the corner from the south piazza, and I
could not help hearing what they said, though I rose and went away
as soon as I had my wits about me and fairly knew that I was
eavesdropping.

"You are so far above me," said a boy's voice which I knew was Harry
Liscom's.

Then came the voice of the girl in reply: "Oh, Harry, it is you who
are so far above me." Then I was sure that they kissed each other.

I reflected as I stole softly away, lest they should discover me and
be ashamed, that, after all, it was only love which could set people
upon immeasurable heights in each other's eyes, and stimulate them to
real improvement and to live up to each other's ideals.

IV

THEY TAKE A FARM

I had wondered a little, after Mrs. Jameson's frantic appeal to me to
secure another boarding-place for her, that she seemed to settle down
so contentedly at Caroline Liscom's. She said nothing more about her
dissatisfaction, if she felt any. However, I fancy that Mrs. Jameson
is one to always conceal her distaste for the inevitable, and
she must have known that she could not have secured another
boarding-place in Linnville. As for Caroline Liscom, her mouth is
always closed upon her own affairs until they have become matters of
history. She never said a word to me about the Jamesons until they
had ceased to be her boarders, which was during the first week in
August. My sister-in-law, Louisa Field, came home one afternoon with
the news. She had been over to Mrs. Gregg's to get her receipt for
blackberry jam, and had heard it there. Mrs. Gregg always knew about
the happenings in our village before they fairly gathered form on the
horizon of reality.

"What do you think, Sophia?" said Louisa when she came in--she did
not wait to take off her hat before she began--"the Jamesons are
going to leave the Liscoms, and they have rented the old Wray place,
and are going to run the farm and raise vegetables and eggs. Mr.
Jameson is coming on Saturday night, and they are going to move in
next Monday."

I was very much astonished; I had never dreamed that the Jamesons had
any taste for farming, and then, too, it was so late in the season.

"Old Jonas Martin is planting the garden now," said Louisa. "I saw
him as I came past."

"The garden," said I; "why, it is the first of August!"

"Mrs. Jameson thinks that she can raise