t hoard of eating-apples while we were out meeting the farmers last
Saturday afternoon. We wish they had been of no value to any one except
the owner." And then, in her sprightliest manner, and with every sign of
enjoyment, she went on to an item during the reading of which I think we
both flushed a little, Solon and I:--

"The United States _Is_

"Some grammar sharp down East says you must say 'The United States are.'
But we guess not. Opinions to that effect prevailed widely to the south
of us some years ago, but the contrary was proved, we believe. The
United States _is_, brother, ever since Appomattox, and even the grammar
book should testify to its is-ness--to its everlasting and indivisible
oneness."

She carried it off so finely that I knew Miss Caroline had recovered
from the fatigues of her journey.

"I shall write you an item myself," she exclaimed, and seizing a stubby
pencil, she wrote rapidly:--

"A battered and ungrammatical old woman from the valley of Virginia has
settled in our midst. She will always believe that the United States
are, but she is harmless and otherwise sane."

"Have I caught the style?--have I used 'in our midst' correctly?" she
asked Solon. And he protested that her style was faultless but that her
matter was grossly misleading.

From this she was presently assuring him, in all pleasantness, that the
seed of Cain, descended through Ham, would, by reason of the curse of
God, be a "servant of servants" unto the end; while Solon was assuring
her, with equal good nature, that this scriptural law had been repealed
by President Lincoln.

Her retort, "I dare say your Mr. Lincoln was _capable_ of wishing to
repeal the Bible," was her nearest approach to asperity.

"A battered old woman!" said Solon to me later. "She looks more like a
candy saint, if they make such things,--one that a child has been
careless with." We agreed that she was an addition to Little Arcady.

The editor of the _Argus_ sighed at this point, and I thought he might
be wishing that all feminine newcomers could be like the latest. For
Mrs. Aurelia Potts, whose leisure Heaven had increased, was now
redoubling her efforts to make the _Argus_ a well of English
undefiled--undefiled by what she called "journalisms." Solon must not,
he confided to me, say "enthuse" nor "we opine" nor "disremember." He
might not say that the pastor "was given" a donation party when he
really meant that the party was