his first payments, and would have met the rest as they came due,
no doubt of it. But the war broke out, and he left all to sarve his
country. Says he, 'I'm an able-bodied man, and I ought to go,' says he.
His business was as important, and his wife and children was as dear to
him, as anybody's; but he felt it his duty to go, and he went. They
didn't give no such big bounties to volunteers then as they do now, and
it was a sacrifice to him every way when he enlisted. But says he, 'I'll
jest do my duty,' says he, 'and trust to Providence for the rest.' You
didn't _dis_courage his goin',--and you didn't _in_courage him, neither,
the way you'd ought to."

"My! what on 'arth, Miss Beswick!----Seems to me you're takin' it upon
yourself to say things that are uncalled for, to say the least! I can't
understand what should have sent you here, to tell me what's my
business, and what a'n't, this fashion! As if I didn't know my own duty
and intentions!" And Mr. Ducklow poured his tea into his plate, and
buttered his bread with a teaspoon.

"I s'pose she's been talking with Sophrony, and she has sent her to
interfere."

"Mrs. Ducklow, you don't s'pose no such thing! You know Sophrony
wouldn't send anybody on such an arrant; and you know I a'n't a person
to do such arrants, or be made a cat's-paw of by anybody. I a'n't
handsome, not partic'larly; and I a'n't wuth my thousands, like some
folks I know; and I never got married, for the best reason in the
world,--them that offered themselves I wouldn't have, and them I would
have had didn't offer themselves; and I a'n't so good a Christian as I
might be, I'm aware. I know my lacks as well as anybody; but bein' a spy
and a cat's-paw a'n't one of 'em. I don't do things sly and underhand.
If I've anything to say to anybody, I go right to 'em, and say it to
their face,--sometimes perty blunt, I allow. But I don't wait to be
_sent_ by other folks. I've a mind o' my own, and my own way o' doin'
things,--that you know as well as anybody. So, when you say you s'pose
Sophrony or anybody else sent me here to interfere, I say you s'pose
what a'n't true, and what you know a'n't true, Mrs. Ducklow!"

Mrs. Ducklow was annihilated; and the visitor went on.

"As for you, Mr. Ducklow, I haven't said you _don't_ know your own duty
and intentions. I've no doubt you _think_ you do, at any rate."

"Very well! then why can't you leave me to do what I think 's my duty?
Everybody ought to have that privi