houses, and were on footing of the
most perfect undress intimacy. They crossed each other's gardens, and
came without knocking into each other's doors twenty times a day,
_apropos_ to any bit of chit-chat that they might have, a question to
ask, a passage in a book to show, a household receipt that they had
been trying. Letitia was the most intimate and confidential friend of
Grace. In fact, the whole Ferguson family seemed like another portion
of the Seymour family. There were two daughters, of whom Letitia
was the eldest. Then came the younger Rose, a nice, charming,
well-informed, good girl, always cheerful and chatty, and with a
decent share of ability at talking lively nonsense. The brothers of
the family, like the young men of New-England country towns generally,
were off in the world seeking their fortunes. Old Judge Ferguson was
a gentleman of the old school,--formal, stately, polite, always
complimentary to ladies, and with a pleasant little budget of
old-gentlemanly hobbies and prejudices, which it afforded him the
greatest pleasure to air in the society of his friends. Old Mrs.
Ferguson was a pattern of motherliness, with her quaint, old-fashioned
dress, her elaborate caps, her daily and minute inquiries after the
health of all her acquaintances, and the tender pityingness of her
nature for every thing that lived and breathed in this world of sin
and sorrow.

Letitia and Grace, as two older sisters of families, had a peculiar
intimacy, and discussed every thing together, from the mode of
clearing jelly up to the profoundest problems of science and morals.
They were both charming, well-mannered, well-educated, well-read
women, and trusted each other to the uttermost with every thought and
feeling and purpose of their hearts.

As we have said, Letitia Ferguson came in at the back door without
knocking, and, coming softly behind Miss Grace, laid down her bunch of
roses among the flowers, and then set down her plate of seed-cakes.

Then she said, "I brought you some specimens of my Souvenir de
Malmaison bush, and my first trial of your receipt."

"Oh, thanks!" said Miss Grace: "how charming those roses are! It was
too bad to spoil your bush, though."

"No: it does it good to cut them; it will flower all the more. But try
one of those cakes,--are they right?"

"Excellent! you have hit it exactly," said Grace; "exactly the right
proportion of seeds. I was hurrying," she added, "to get these flowers
in wate