led by the bitters-bottle; I am going with the
Squire and Mrs. Bartlett."

"Doc" Wiggins' party left in high good humor, the Squire and his party
promising to follow immediately. Anna ran upstairs to get Mrs.
Bartlett's bonnet and cloak, and Marthy, with a great air of mystery,
got up, and, carefully closing the door after the girl, turned to the
Squire and his wife with:

"I've come to tell you something about her."

"Something about Anna?" said the Squire indignantly.

"Oh, no, not about our Anna," protested Mrs. Bartlett: "Why, she is the
best kind of a girl; we are all devoted to her."

"That's just the saddest part of it, I says to myself when I heard.
How can I ever make up my mind to tell them pore, dear Bartletts, who
took her in, and has been treating her like one of their own family
ever since? It will come hard on, them, I sez, but that ought not to
deter me from my duty."

"Look here, Marthy," thundered the Squire, "if you've got anything to
say about that girl, out with it----"

"Well, land sake--you needn't be so touchy; she ain't kin to you, and
you might thank your lucky stars she ain't."

"Well, what is it, Marthy?" interposed Mrs. Bartlett. "Anna'll be down
in a minute."

"Well, you know, I have been sewin' down to Warren Center this last
week, and Maria Thomson, from Belden, was visiting there, and naturally
we all got to talking 'bout folks up this way, and that girl Anna
Moore's name was mentioned, and I'm blest if Maria Thomson didn't
recognize her from my description.

"I was telling them 'bout the way she came here last June, pale as a
ghost, and how she said her mother had just died and she'd been sick,
and they knew right off who she was."

Marthy loved few things as she did an interested audience. It was her
meat and drink.

"Well, she didn't call herself Moore in Belden, though that was her
mother's name--she called herself Lennox," Marthy grinned. "She was
one of those married ladies who forgot their wedding rings."

The Squire knit his brows and his jaws came together with a snap; there
were tears in Mrs. Bartlett's eyes. The gossip looked from one to the
other to see the impression her words were making.

It spurred her on to new efforts. She positively rolled the words
about in delight before she could utter them.

"Well, the girl's mother, who had been looking worried out of her skin,
took sick and died all of a sudden, and the girl took sick herself very
soon