men is to
create them for men's convenience,' And then there's little Susy, with
a face like her mother's. Why, it just haunts me!"

"Well," said Jim, "things are in a bad fix over there; but it isn't
Susy's face that haunts me, by any means."

His mother laughed. "I shall take care of Margaret," she said; "she
and Elizabeth need some one to look after them. They are being worked
to death."

Four years have slipped over the heads of the Stillmans--years well
improved by Rachel and Susy at the academy in the town near their
father's farm; years which gave Margaret's happiness into Jim
Lansing's keeping, and made Jim a young man of whom his sisters were
extremely proud. Even Elizabeth's sad face looks as if life might be
worth living; for, under the second wife, life at Stillman's had taken
on a different color. The spare room is a pretty sitting-room for the
young folks.

"We don't want them always with us," says Mrs. Stillman, as she shows
her husband the change she has made; for one of her peculiarities is
that she manages her household affairs as she thinks best, taking it
for granted that her husband will approve. As for Rachel, she enjoyed
the change for the better; but now, to the bitter feeling which she
cherished toward her father, was added a touch of contempt "See,"
she thought, "how he can be flattered into doing things; if my mother
could have managed him so, she might have lived."

Rachel was mistaken; the new wife did not manoeuvre or flatter, she
simply took her proper place as mistress of the house--not as a sort
of upper servant, to be snubbed or praised at the master's humor.

Another summer had been added to Rachel's years when, one evening,
Tom came home from town, and entering the dining-room, where she was
preparing the table for supper, exclaimed: "Rachel, do you remember
old Gray, as I used to call him, who taught our school the winter
before mother died?"

"Yes," she said, "I remember him. Mother liked him."

"Well, I met him in town to-day. He's on that Sanders case. He knew me
right off, and he's coming out here this evening; so fix up nice and
be looking your sweetest. They say he's smart. I heard some of the old
lawyers talking about him." And Tom caught his sister about the waist
and waltzed her out on the porch.

"Rachel," said Susy, as in their own room the girls were dressing
after supper, "you are very hard to please to-night and you seem
nervous. What ails you?"

Rachel sm