! Mamma
meant to choose them herself, but she had not time, and so she told me,
and I think I found the kind she thought you would like."

"Now I'm sure!" said Mrs. Patton, "if that ain't kind; you don't tell me
that Mis' Lancaster thought of me just as she was going off? I shall set
everything by them caps, and I'm much obliged to you too, Miss Kate. I
was just going to speak of that time you were here and saw the mug; you
trimmed a cap for Miss Katharine to give me, real Boston style. I guess
that box of cap-fixings is up on the top shelf of Miss Katharine's
closet now, to the left hand," said Mrs. Patton, with wistful certainty.
"She used to make her every-day caps herself, and she had some beautiful
materials laid away that she never used. Some folks has laughed at me
for being so particular 'bout wearing caps except for best, but I don't
know's it's presuming beyond my station, and somehow I feel more respect
for myself when I have a good cap on. I can't get over your mother's
rec'lecting about me; and she sent me a handsome present o' money this
spring for looking after the house. I never should have asked for a
cent; it's a pleasure to me to keep an eye on it, out o' respect to your
aunt. I was so pleased when I heard you were coming long o' your friend.
I like to see the old place open; it was about as bad as having no
meeting. I miss seeing the lights, and your aunt was a great hand for
lighting up bright; the big hall lantern was lit every night, and she
put it out when she went up stairs. She liked to go round same's if it
was day. You see I forget all the time she was sick, and go back to the
days when she was well and about the house. When her mind was failing
her, and she was up stairs in her room, her eyesight seemed to be lost
part of the time, and sometimes she'd tell us to get the lamp and a
couple o' candles in the middle o' the day, and then she'd be as
satisfied! But she used to take a notion to set in the dark, some
nights, and think, I s'pose. I should have forty fits, if I undertook
it. That was a good while ago; and do you rec'lect how she used to play
the piano? She used to be a great hand to play when she was young."

"Indeed I remember it," said Kate, who told me afterward how her aunt
used to sit at the piano in the twilight and play to herself. "She was
formerly a skilful musician," said my friend, "though one would not have
imagined she cared for music. When I was a child she used to play