; "the style is his,
but there are several words that I have never known him to use;
however, they may have been illegible in the original, and their place
supplied by the printer's ingenuity. I remember hearing father and
mother often speak of Reuben Nichols who lived near grandfather in
Londonderry, and I believe that he had a son named Reuben, and a
daughter named Aseneth, so the letter must be genuine, I suppose."

"Was it true, mamma?" inquired Marguerite, "that uncle was fond of
little girls? You know it has been said of him that he was as a man
quite indifferent to women."

"Yes, he was very partial to little girls," was mamma's reply, "when
they were pretty and gentle. Not, however, in the love-making way of
the present precocious generation, but he liked to talk to them, and
relate stories from the books he had read. Perhaps the secret of his
preference lay in the fact that they made more attentive and
sympathetic listeners than his rough boy-friends.

"I told you the other day that at the ball he attended when thirteen
years old, he was the escort of Anne Bush, the prettiest girl in the
village. She was perhaps a year younger than he, and as I remember
her, extremely pretty--a slender figure, cheeks like roses, blue eyes,
dark hair, and very gentle, ladylike ways. She had a sister Sophie,
who was as plain as Anne was pretty; and a wild, mischievous girl, but
my inseparable and dearest companion.

"There were two other girls of whom brother was very fond at that time;
Cornelia Anne Smith and Rebecca Fish. Cornelia Anne was older than the
other girls, about fourteen, I think, and was the fondest of learning
of the trio. I remember that she often used to bring her school-books
to brother when some difficulty had arisen in her lessons, and he would
explain the hard points. I think that he always corresponded with
these girls, and visited them occasionally after they became women, for
you know with what tenacity he clung to his early associations. He has
often spoken to me of Rebecca Fish, who is now Mrs. Whipple, of
Fairhaven.

"You would be amused if I were to tell you how he used to pass the time
that he spent with these three girls. A city-bred boy of thirteen or
fourteen would have been quite capable of arranging an elopement with
the prettiest one, but brother's style of courtship was quite unique;
he used to correct their grammar when they conversed, and gravely
lecture them upon the folly o