o lived to be one hundred and four."

"Did she come to want?"

"She had a good son to take care of her."

"And you have Cousin Chilian. I read somewhere in the Bible--I wish I
could remember the chapters and verses, 'While we have time let us do
good unto _all_ men.' I suppose that means those who haven't been frugal
and careful, as well as the others."

"We can't tell just what every sentence means."

"But we can help them. And here is a poor woman who doesn't go to
taverns;" smiling tenderly and with persuasive eyes.

They picked out enough for a wagon-load. Some of Cousin Chilian's
clothes that would do to cut over, old woollen blankets, and a variety
of articles.

"Let us put them all in this chest."

"We might need the chest."

"Oh, no, we won't. They will be so much easier to carry that way. Silas
could drive down there. And, oh, you can't imagine how much good they
will do."

Cynthia went down to see afterward, and the poor woman's gratitude
brought tears to her eyes.

"They will be a perfect God-send this winter," she said. "I've been
frettin' as to what we should do. I've never begged yet. Well, the Lord
is good."

Then there came another source of interest. Polly Upham was "keeping
company." A nice, steady young man in the ship-chandlery business, with
a little money saved up, whose folks lived at Portsmouth. He came
regularly on Wednesday night and Sundays to tea. They went to church in
the evening, and that certified it to the young people. Betty had left
school and was trying her hand at housekeeping. Louis, the little
fellow, was a big boy.

Alice Turner was engaged also, and certainly very much in love if she
considered the young man a paragon. Cynthia compared them all with
Cousin Chilian, and it wasn't a bit fair.

She met Mr. Saltonstall at a small party, where they played games and
had forfeits.

It was odd, she thought, how the girls chose him in everything. She
didn't choose him once. He spoke of it afterward.

"Why, I thought some of the others ought to have a chance," she
explained with winning sweetness. "But if it had been dancing!" and she
laughed, and that reconciled him.

Then Mrs. Lynde Saltonstall gave her house-warming. It was a simple
dwelling and not very large, but it was pretty as a picture. And young
people didn't expect to rival their fathers and mothers in the start.

They had dancing, and that was enough. They were all young people, and
two of the fiddlers