for all; jars of
striped candy for well, and hoarhound for sick children; and a little
fragrant Old Hyson and San Domingo for venerable customers. She walked
about gently; was never betrayed into any bustle by the excitement of
traffic; liked all sweet, shy, woodland natures, from Annie Bray to
squirrels; and contracted an affection for me because of my diffidence
and devotion to the former.

Whenever she came to the cottage, she poured oil upon the turbulent
waters of its domestic life; coaxed up Amos as daintily and charily as a
child would proffer crumbs to a bear in a menagerie; pleased Mrs. Bray
by accounts of her city shopping; and petted Annie, giving her
occasionally, in a shy way, some bow or bit of silk, of an especially
brilliant hue, which had caught her eye in town. She was a very useful
member of the Methodist Society, for she had always innumerable odds and
ends for pin-cushions and needle-books; and although her religious
experiences did not seek those stormy channels which the Reverend Mr.
Purdo believed to have been elected for the saints, yet her sympathies
were so ready, her heart so kind, that, when he saw her after a day of
activity collect her bunch of flowers again in her hand, and start, as
she often did, for one of the lanes or outlying farms, to watch through
the night with some sick woman or child, he was fain to remember that
"faith without works is dead."

Miss Dinsmore's store was exceedingly attractive to the young people of
the village. She lent a cordial ear to every matrimonial scheme; was
quite willing that all preliminaries for such arrangements should be
settled within her precincts; and many a tender word and glance,
doubtless, received its inspiration from a conspicuous stand for
bonnets, whose four pegs were kept supplied with those of Miss
Dinsmore's own manufacture, originally white, but so seldom demanded for
village wear that the honey-moon in Warren shed its pale yellow beams on
this crowning article of bridal attire long before it was donned by the
happy wearer. These bonnets were severally labelled on modest slips of
paper, after city nomenclature, "Bridal Hat"; and Miss Dinsmore would on
no account have parted with them for any less occasion, however festive;
so that one consulting her stand had as accurate a knowledge of
impending marriages as could have been obtained from the
"publishing-list" of the "meeting-house."

Moreover, Miss Dinsmore herself was laboring unde