straight home. Let us find the market again. I didn't half see
it last night."

"It wasn't night exactly. Yes--we must learn to find our way about, for
we cannot stay in all the time. This is Essex Street. Let us turn here."

The market was in its glory this morning. The stalls were ornamented
with branches of evergreens, the floors sifted over with sawdust. There
were vegetables and meats, but no great variety. There was no sunny
south, no swift train to send in delicious luxuries. The cold storage of
that day was being buried in pits and being brought out to light as
occasion required.

There were other stalls, with various household stores. Iron-holders,
tin kettles, whiskbrooms, pins (which were quite a luxury), crockery
ware even. Wagons had come in from country places and customers were
thronging about them.

The people interested Miss Winn, and the chaffering, the beating down in
prices, was quite amusing. Here a woman was measuring some cotton goods
from her chin to the ends of her fingers; here sat a cobbler doing odd
jobs while some one waited. Altogether it was very entertaining, and it
was dinner-time when they reached home.

"Mr. Leverett has gone to Boston," announced Miss Leverett. "We must
have our dinner without him."

"Yes, he was down on the ship," said Miss Winn. "Do you often go to
Boston?"

"I am much too busy to be gadding about," returned Elizabeth sharply;
"though we have connections there, and I once spent several years in the
city."

"I don't suppose it is at all like London. Eastern cities are so
different--and dirty," she added.

"Boston is very nice, quite a superior place, but we do not consider it
much above Salem," Miss Elizabeth said, with an air. "We have nearly all
of the East India trade. To be sure, there is Harvard at Cambridge, and
that calls students and professors. Cousin Chilian is a graduate. He
could have been an accepted professor if he had chosen."

Then the conversation languished. They were hardly through dinner when
the next relay of goods arrived.

"Cynthia's desk must go upstairs, I suppose. Her father had it made for
her birthday. Will Silas unpack again? There is a small cabinet of
teakwood that is beautifully carved. If you could find room in the
parlor for that. There were many other fine pieces that will no doubt be
sold, and it seems a great pity."

Elizabeth acquiesced rather frigidly, adding, "It is fortunate the house
is large, but one seems t