rks. "I'll tell him next time he goes to market,
tie her to the well-sweep and walk; you don't cal'late his legs would up
and run away with him, do ye? Now I'm goin' to help Miss Hands dish up
dinner."

"Hold on, Calvin! hold on jest a minute!" cried Mr. Sim anxiously. "I've
got a little present I'd like for you to give Sam'l from me, sir.
It's--" he got up, shuffled across the room, and opened a cupboard door.
"It's something he's allers coveted."

Fumbling in a box, he took out an ancient seal of red carnelian, and
rubbed it lovingly on his coat-sleeve.

"Belonged to Uncle Sim Penny," he said. "Ma give it to me, on accounts
of me bein' his name-son; I don't know as ever I've used it, or likely
to, and Sam'l has always coveted it. You give that to Sam'l, Calvin,
will you?"

"Oh molasses!" said Calvin impatiently. "Give it to him yourself, you
ridic'lous old object!"

"No! no, Calvin! no, no, sir!" cried Mr. Sim piteously. "We don't
speak, you know; we--we've lost the habit of it, and we're too old to
ketch holt of it again. You give it to him, Cal, like a good feller!
And--and there's another thing, Calvin. Did you have any dealin's with
Cousin about what we was speakin' of some time along back, in regards to
Sam'l?"

"I did!" said Calvin Parks.

"Well--well, Cal, what did she say?" Mr. Sim leaned forward anxiously.
"Was she anyways favorable, sir?"

"She was not!" replied Calvin. "She give me to understand--not in so
many words, but that was the sense of it,--that she'd full as soon marry
a cucumber-wood pump as him, or you either. So there you have it!"

"Dear me!" cried Mr. Sim; and he wrung his hands with the identical
gesture that Mr. Sam had made. "Dear me sirs! what is to become of us,
Calvin?"

"Dinner is ready, Cousin Sim!" said Mary Sands, putting her head in at
the door. "Cousin Sam, dinner's ready! Merry Christmas to you, Mr.
Parks, and pleased to see you!"

CHAPTER XIV

AT LAST!

Mr. Sim shuffled in from one door, Mr. Sam from the other. As each
raised his eyes to look at the table, he saw the figure opposite; both
stopped short, and the two pairs of little gray eyes glared, one at a
black waistcoat, the other at a red.

"Take your seats, Cousins, please!" said Mary Sands, quickly. "Mr.
Parks, if you'll set opposite me--that's it! The Lord make us thankful,
Cousins and Mr. Parks, this Christmas Day, and mindful of the wants of
others, amen! You said you didn't mind carvin', Mr.