an
ever and shinier than ever, and the coffee better, and the cream
richer, and the broiled chickens juicier and more tender, and the
biscuit whiter, and the corn-bread more brittle and sweet.

When the good doctor read the Scriptures at family prayer, the infection
of silence had subdued everything except the clock. Out of the wide hall
could be heard in the stillness the old clock, that now lifted up its
voice with unwonted emphasis, as if, unnoticed through the bustling
week, Sunday was its vantage ground, to proclaim to mortals the swift
flight of time. And if the old pedant performed the task with something
of an ostentatious precision, it was because in that house nothing else
put on official airs, and the clock felt the responsibility of doing it
for the whole mansion.

And now came mother and catechism; for Mrs. Wentworth followed the old
custom, and declared that no child of hers should grow up without
catechism. Secretly, the doctor was quite willing, though openly he
played off upon the practice a world of good-natured discouragement, and
declared that there should be an opposition set up--a catechism of
Nature, with natural laws for decrees, and seasons for Providence, and
flowers for graces! The younger children were taught in simple
catechism. But Rose, having reached the mature age of twelve, was now
manifesting her power over the Westminster Shorter Catechism; and as it
was simply an achievement of memory and not of the understanding, she
had the book at great advantage, and soon subdued every question and
answer in it. As much as possible, the doctor was kept aloof on such
occasions. His grave questions were not to edification, and often they
caused Rose to stumble, and brought down sorely the exultation with
which she rolled forth, "They that are effectually called do in this
life partake of justification, adoption, sanctification, and the several
benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them."

"What do those words mean, Rose?"

"Which words, pa?"

"Adoption, sanctification, and justification?"

Rose hesitated, and looked at her mother for rescue.

"Doctor, why do you trouble the child? Of course she don't know yet all
the meaning. But that will come to her when she grows older."

"You make a nest of her memory, then, and put words there, like eggs,
for future hatching?"

"Yes, that is it exactly: birds do not hatch their eggs the minute they
lay them. They wait."

"La