ourney."

"It seems almost incredible that one can stand it, but we see them
starting every few days for distant ports. My farthest journey has been
to Providence; but, land alive! you don't know where that is, and it's
no great distance. Will you not come and have a cup of tea or coffee?"

"Thank you. We had breakfast not long ago, it seems."

"Let me take you to your room," said Eunice. "And I hope you will soon
feel at home with us. We are quiet people, but we shall endeavor to
make you comfortable. Cynthia, will you not shake hands with me?"

The soft, rather pleading voice attracted the child. She glanced up
shyly and then held out a tiny hand hesitatingly.

"She is rather backward at first," explained Rachel, who followed the
hostess up the broad stairway.

One of the guest-chambers had been set aside for their use after much
discussion as to whether one or two would be needed. A smaller one
opened into this, and a large closet was at the side.

"You can take off your things--I suppose your boxes, or whatever you
have, will be here presently. The bureau is empty and this chest of
drawers. We are rather old-fashioned people, and the house is the same
as it was in the time of Chilian's father. The captain made one visit
here, when the little girl was about four. It must have been hard for
him to lose his wife in a strange country like that. I suppose there are
not many Americans?"

"No; there are numbers of Englishwomen, wives of soldiers and traders,
though I think most of them long to get home. They do not seem to take
root easily."

"I shouldn't think they would, in that idolatrous country. The accounts
of heathendom are appalling. And that car of Juggernaut, and drowning
their poor little babies! They do not seem to make much of girl
children."

"Indeed, they do not, only as in some families they are wanted for
wives. But the devotion of mothers to their sons is wonderful."

Rachel had laid aside a silk coat that filled Eunice with a sort of
wonder, being brocaded with beautiful leaves and roses that seemed as if
they must have been worked by hand, they stood out so clearly. The child
appeared fantastically attired to her plainer eyes, and her slim arms
were weighted with bracelets. In her dainty ears were some splendid
sapphires.

"I do hope you will soon feel at home," Eunice said from a full heart,
if there was a rather awkward feeling about it. Yet she liked Miss
Winn's face. It had a kindly a