il-men of
its own, and on the whole it may be considered that its prosperity is
established on a good foundation.

Changes came to the people also, some of them to be rejoiced over, and
some of them not. The High-School lost Mr Burnet as a teacher, which,
considering his utter inability to fall in with certain new-fangled
notions as to schools and schoolmasters, which the influx of new-comers
brought with it, was not a bad thing for him, whatever it might be for
the school. He went home to Scotland to take possession of some money
left to him by an elder brother, who had been a rich man. He came back,
however, to make his home in Canada, as people who have lived in it for
any length of time are almost sure to do.

He brought back with him his two daughters, bonnie lassies of fifteen
and sixteen, and took up his abode with them in the house that had been
the parsonage. The big house on the hill answered the purpose of a
parsonage now. His daughters were nice, merry girls, but they were
quite ignorant of housekeeping matters, and they did not get on very
well with the new ways of the place for a while. They had, perhaps,
been too much restrained by the friends who had brought them up, for
some of the staid people of Gershom thought that they did not know how
to use their liberty wisely.

Perhaps their father thought so too, and that he needed help to guide
them; at any rate, to the surprise of most people, he asked Miss Betsey
Holt to come and take care of them, and of himself also, and after some
hesitation, caused by doubt as to how "mother and Cynthy and Ben would
get along without her," she consented.

All eyes were on the household for a time, for dutiful submission on the
part of the young step-daughters was considered doubtful by a good many
of their friends. It is likely that Betsey had her own troubles with
them till they knew her better, but no one in Gershom was the wiser for
anything that she told them, and things righted themselves in time, as
they always do where good and sensible people are concerned.

Mark Varney redeemed his farm and moor, and carried his mother and his
little daughter home again when Mr Maxwell was married. His farm was
not so large after a time, for a part of it was laid out in building
lots for the new village, and Mark, as the neighbours declared, was soon
"well-to-do," and doing well.

And though he never made so good a speech again as he made that day at
the picnic, h