!' says Miss
Dearborn. 'I could teach school from sun-up to sun-down if scholars was
all like Rebecca Randall,' says she."

"Oh, Mr. Cobb, DID she say that?" glowed Rebecca, her face sparkling
and dimpling in an instant. "I've tried hard all the time, but I'll
study the covers right off of the books now."

"You mean you would if you'd ben goin' to stay here," interposed uncle
Jerry. "Now ain't it too bad you've jest got to give it all up on
account o' your aunt Mirandy? Well, I can't hardly blame ye. She's
cranky an' she's sour; I should think she'd ben nussed on bonny-clabber
an' green apples. She needs bearin' with; an' I guess you ain't much on
patience, be ye?"

"Not very much," replied Rebecca dolefully.

"If I'd had this talk with ye yesterday," pursued Mr. Cobb, "I believe
I'd have advised ye different. It's too late now, an' I don't feel to
say you've ben all in the wrong; but if 't was to do over again, I'd
say, well, your aunt Mirandy gives you clothes and board and schoolin'
and is goin' to send you to Wareham at a big expense. She's turrible
hard to get along with, an' kind o' heaves benefits at your head, same
's she would bricks; but they're benefits jest the same, an' mebbe it's
your job to kind o' pay for 'em in good behavior. Jane's a leetle bit
more easy goin' than Mirandy, ain't she, or is she jest as hard to
please?"

"Oh, aunt Jane and I get along splendidly," exclaimed Rebecca; "she's
just as good and kind as she can be, and I like her better all the
time. I think she kind of likes me, too; she smoothed my hair once. I'd
let her scold me all day long, for she understands; but she can't stand
up for me against aunt Mirandy; she's about as afraid of her as I am."

"Jane'll be real sorry to-morrow to find you've gone away, I guess; but
never mind, it can't be helped. If she has a kind of a dull time with
Mirandy, on account o' her bein' so sharp, why of course she'd set
great store by your comp'ny. Mother was talkin' with her after prayer
meetin' the other night. 'You wouldn't know the brick house, Sarah,'
says Jane. 'I'm keepin' a sewin' school, an' my scholar has made three
dresses. What do you think o' that,' says she, 'for an old maid's
child? I've taken a class in Sunday-school,' says Jane, 'an' think o'
renewin' my youth an' goin' to the picnic with Rebecca,' says she; an'
mother declares she never see her look so young 'n' happy."

There was a silence that could be felt in the little ki