forgetfulness of all this humble sport and joy,--as a sustainer of
feeble "social fictions," and a violator of the great covenant?

To the boy and girl it was not a question whether all their lives these
relations should continue, and this play go on; but even to them, as
children, a question that seriously concerned them, and in whose
discussion they bore serious part, arose.

The old building Dexter occupied was becoming unfit for tenants. It had
been patched over and over, until it was no longer safe, and agents
refused to insure it. The proprietor accordingly determined to pull it
down.

A change to a better locality had often been suggested to Dexter; but
his invariable reply was, that "people shouldn't try to run before they
were able to walk,--he was satisfied with Salt Lane and his neighbors":
though of late he had made such replies with gravity, thinking of his
daughter.

And now that the necessity was facing him, he met it like a man. He
talked the matter over with his wife, and the claim of their child was
urgent in the heart of each while they talked, and it could not have
surprised either when suddenly their hopes met in her benediction. For
Columbia's sake they must find a pleasant place for the new nest, some
nook where beauty would be welcome, and gentle grace, and quiet, and
light, and fair colors, and sweet odors would be possible; so pure and
fair a child she seemed to father Dexter, so did the mother's heart
desire to protect her from all odious influences and surroundings, that,
when the prospect of change was before them, it was in reference to her,
as well as trade, that the Company would make it.

Swift was taken into their confidence, and he walked with the pair
around the streets one evening to see the shop Dexter's eyes had fixed
on. It was a modest tenement in a crowded quarter, on whose door and
windows "_To Let_" was posted. Silas had been out house-hunting in the
afternoon, and this place appeared to meet his wishes; he had inquired
about the rent, it did not seem too high for a house so comfortable, and
it was probable that by to-morrow night the family would, after a
fashion, be settled within those walls.

They sat down on the door-step and talked about the change with serious
gravity, mindful that the old tenement they were about to leave had
sheltered them since their marriage-day, that they had prospered in Salt
Lane, and that the change they were about to make would be attend