warlike Susey in the closet, where she was loud in
pronouncing maledictions against her brother, and heaping vituperations
upon her father; declaring, when mammy came home, she would tell her how
she was abused in her absence, and mammy would take sides with her,
because she knew men were all cross and ugly, and tried to hurt and wrong
poor feeble woman. Garrison and David finished their meal in silence; and
when the seminary bell rang to announce the hour for reoepening of school,
Mr. Pimble liberated Susey, and all went shouting off together.

Then he called in Dilly and the housekeeper, and, while they dined on the
fragments, went out in the kitchen to inspect the progress there. All
seemed to be moving on well, and, as he was returning to his seat by the
sitting-room fire, a covered buggy drove to the front piazza, and a
gentleman descended and assisted two ladies to alight. Directly the
parlor was dashed open, and the trio made their entry. Foremost was the
mistress of the mansion, Mrs. Judith Justitia Pimble. What a puny,
trembling thing appeared the husband, as he stood there like a galvanized
mummy in presence of that tall, portly woman, with her broad shoulders
and commanding aspect! Her first act was to smother the fire; her second,
to throw open the windows; her third, to ensconce herself in her liege
lord's easy-chair, and bid her guests lay aside their travelling garbs,
and make themselves at home. Finding his comfortable seat appropriated,
and no notice vouchsafed him, Mr. Pimble shuffled off into the kitchen.

"Was that your husband, sister Justitia?" inquired the lady visitor, as
she threw off her shawl and bonnet, with an energetic toss.

"Yes," answered the majestic lady in her most majestic tone, "that was
Pimble. You will not mind him at all; he is as near nothing as can be,--a
mere crank to keep the machine in motion,--you understand. He has his
sphere, however. The lowest brute animals have theirs. Pimble's is to
stay at home and superintend the minor matters of life, such as milking
the kine, feeding the chickens, and slaughtering a lamb occasionally to
subserve the grosser wants of poor human nature. In brief, all those
trivial and perplexing things in which a superior mind cannot be supposed
to feel an interest, and by which it is not right it should be fettered,
and prevented from soaring to its own lofty sphere of thought and
action."

Mrs. Pimble paused for breath as she delivered herself o