her wince sometimes, when the fine though untutored voices around
her took on a too wild and exuberant strain. The little woman's own voice
was exceedingly gentle and refined; more than that, it had a passionately
sweet, sad tone, a rare pathos. I used to wonder what there was in
Madeline's heart--what there had been in her life--to make her sing so.
Then I remembered how easy it was for her to get out of temper, and how
often she slapped the children, and I concluded that it was only a voice
after all, and not necessarily indicative of any inward sentiment or
emotion.

And the mischievous Harvey Dole--could it be the same youth who stood
there now with tearful eyes, chanting his longings to be pure and
sanctified and heavenly. This merry youth had a predilection for those
religious songs which contained the deepest and saddest sentiment.

"Now, what's the matter with you, Harvey?" said Emily Gaskell, who had
but just dropped in. "You know you'll go along hum to-night stunin' my
cats! You know what a precious nice time you're calculatin' to have,
about two months from now, up in my trees stealin' my peaches, you young
devil. 'Wash you from your sins!' Humph! Yes, you need it bad enough,
Lord knows! A good poundin', and boilin', and sudzin', you need--and a
good soakin' in the bluein' water over night, too."

Emily's eyes sparkled with keen though good-natured satire. There was a
flood of crimson color in her cheeks, not entirely the effect of her
brisk walk in the open air. She had a spasm of coughing, which she
endured as though such discomforts had become quite a matter of course,
merely remarking when she had recovered herself sufficiently to speak:--

"Thar', that'll last me for one spell, I guess."

"Won't you set, Emily?" said Grandma.

"No," said Emily. "I can't. I jest come up to tell my man, there, to go
home! Levi is over from West Wallen, and wants to see him. Lord, I didn't
know you'd got a party, Miss Keeler!" she continued, glancing with an
irresistibly comical expression about the room.

"Oh, no! we ain't got no party," said Grandma Keeler, pleasantly. "They
jest happened to drop in along."

"Wall now, I should think there'd ben a shower and rained 'em all down at
once:" again surveying the occupants of the room with a comprehensively
critical air that was hardly flattering.

"I don't see what on 'arth!" she went on. "Half the time you might
ransack Wallencamp from top to bottom, and you'd find