"This is my aunt,--you have seen her before," I replied.

"Yes, seen her to meetin' with ye; come in, mam," and she dropped a low
curtsey and set forward two chairs, whose sand-scoured seats were white
and spotless, for Aunt Peg was a marvel of neatness.

I told our errand, and with one of her queer looks, she said:

"Is he clean?"

Aunt Phebe replied, "Why, I think the old man does the best he can, a
lone man can't do as well as a woman, you know."

"Well, there's that ground room of mine he kin have if Plint is willin',
and if he ain't, for that matter; for Plint himself arn't good for
nothin' but fiddlin', and you see if I want bread I get it. I s'pose
wimmen ought to be a leetle worth mindin', 'specially if they get their
own bread," and a look of satisfaction crept over her face as if pleased
with this thought.

"Well," said Aunt Phebe, "I would like to see the room, and also know
the price of it; of course, you must have some pay for it, and then, if
Matthias should be ill, or prove troublesome to you in any way, it will
not be so hard for you."

"Oh, the pay, bless the Master, mam, I never get pay for anything
hardly, not even the work I did up to Deacon Grover's for years! I jist
wish I had that money in a chist in the cellar. He kep' it for me, he
said, an' so he did, an' he keeps it yet, and--oh! but the room, come
right along, this way, mam," and we followed her steps.

She led us out of the little door, which in the summer was covered with
those dear old cypress vines my mother used to have, and though the
lattice was made by her own hands of rude strips, when it was well
covered with the cypress intergrown with the other vines, there was
great beauty round that little door.

When Clara saw it, and I told her of its construction, and remarked on
Aunt Peg's love for flowers, she said:

"Ah, Emily, it is typical of our nature! We do seem so rudely made in
the winter of our ignorance, and through the lattice of our untutored
thoughts the cold winds of different opinions blow and we are troubled.
But when the summer of our better nature dawns, and the upturned soil
catches seed, even though dropped by a careless hand, the vines of love
will cover all our coldness, and the scarlet and white blossom of our
beautiful thoughts appear among the leaves. Aunt Peg's earthly hand made
the lattice, and the love of her undying soul planted the cypress
seeds."

I thought of it this cold winter's day, and tol