XLIV. Preliminary Brotherhood

XLV. I make Coffee and get into Hot Water

XLVI. Going back for a Friend

XLVII. I interest Miss Laniston

XLVIII. In a Cold, Bare Room

XLIX. My Own Way

L. My Book of Travel

LI. A Loose End

LII. I finish the Sicilian Love-Story

THE HOUSE OF MARTHA.

I.

MY GRANDMOTHER AND I.

My grandmother sat in her own particular easy-chair by the open window
of her back parlor. This was a pleasant place in which to sit in the
afternoon, for the sun was then on the other side of the house, and she
could look not only over the smooth grass of the side yard and the
flower beds, which were under her especial care, but across the corner
of the front lawn into the village street. Here, between two handsome
maple-trees which stood upon the sidewalk, she could see something of
what was going on in the outer world without presenting the appearance
of one who is fond of watching her neighbors. It was not much that she
saw, for the street was a quiet one; but a very little of that sort of
thing satisfied her.

She was a woman who was easily satisfied. As a proof of this, I may say
that she looked upon me as a man who always did what was right. Indeed,
I am quite sure there were cases when she saved herself a good deal of
perplexing cogitation by assuming that a thing was right because I did
it. I was her only grandchild: my father and mother had died when I was
very young, and I had always lived with her,--that is, her house had
always been my home; and as I am sure there had never been any reason
why I should not be a dutiful and affectionate grandson, it was not
surprising that she looked upon me with a certain tender partiality, and
that she considered me worthy of all the good that she or fortune could
bestow upon me.

My grandmother was nearly seventy, but her physical powers had been
excellently well preserved; and as to her mental vigor, I could see no
change in it. Even when a little boy I had admired her powers of
sympathetic consideration, by which she divined the needs and desires of
her fellow-creatures; and now that I had become a grown man I found
those powers as active and ready as they had ever been.

The village in which we lived contained a goodly number of families of
high standing and comfortable fortune. It was a village of well-kept and
well-shaded streets, of close-cut grass, with no litter on the
sidewalks.