ce loses his
self-possession. His quick perception detects Friend Frisbie behind the
gun; and he smiles with his intelligent, fine-cut face. Shall malice
have the pleasure of knowing that the shot has told? Our orator is too
sagacious for that. There is never any use in being angry: that is one
of his maxims. Therefore, if he feels any chagrin, he will smother it.
If there is a storm within, the world shall see only the rainbow, that
radiant smile of his. Cool is Gingerford! He has seized the subject
instantly, and calculated all its bearings. He is a man to make the best
of it; and even the bitterness which is in it shall, if possible, bear
him some wholesome drink. To school his mind to patience,--to practise
daily the philanthropy he teaches,--this will be much; and already his
heart is humbled and warmed. And who knows,--for, with all his
sincerity and aspiration, he has an eye to temporal uses,--who knows but
this stumbling-block an enemy has placed in his way may prove the
stepping-stone of his ambition?

"What is all this, James?" he inquires of his son, who comes out to the
gate to meet him.

"Frisbie's meanness!" says the young man, almost choking. "And the whole
town is laughing at us!"

"Laughing at us? What have we done?" mildly answers the parent. "I tell
you what, James,--they sha'n't laugh at us long. We can live so as to
compel them to reverence us; and if there is any ridicule attached to
the affair, it will soon rest where it belongs."

"Such a sty stuck right down under our noses!" muttered the mortified
James.

"We will make of it an ornament," retorts the Judge, with mounting
spirits. "Come with me,"--taking the youth's arm. "My son, call no human
habitation a sty. These people are our brothers, and we will show them
the kindness of brethren."

A servant receives the horse, and Gingerford and his son cross the
street.

"Good evening, Friend Williams! So you have concluded to come and live
neighbor to us, have you?"

Friend Williams was at the end of the house, occupied in improvising a
cowshed under an old apple-tree. Piggy was already tied to the trunk of
the tree, and the hens and turkeys were noisily selecting their roosts
in the boughs. At sight of the Judge, whose displeasure he feared, the
negro was embarrassed, and hardly knew what to say. But the pleasant
greeting of the silver-toned voice reassured him, and he stopped his
work to frame his candid, respectful answer.

"It was Mr