awful
sight of em leaves it to their deathbeds, forty seems real kind
of young. Not that I've heard Abner has experienced religion, but
everybody's surprised at the good way he's conductin' this fall."

"They'll be surprised the other way round when they come to miss their
firewood and apples and potatoes again," affirmed Miranda.

"Clara Belle don't seem to have inherited from her father," Jane
ventured again timidly. "No wonder Mrs. Fogg sets such store by the
girl. If it hadn't been for her, the baby would have been dead by now."

"Perhaps tryin' to save it was interferin' with the Lord's will," was
Miranda's retort.

"Folks can't stop to figure out just what's the Lord's will when a child
has upset a kettle of scalding water on to himself," and as she spoke
Jane darned more excitedly. "Mrs. Fogg knows well enough she hadn't
ought to have left that baby alone in the kitchen with the stove, even
if she did see Clara Belle comin' across lots. She'd ought to have
waited before drivin' off; but of course she was afraid of missing the
train, and she's too good a woman to be held accountable."

"The minister's wife says Clara Belle is a real--I can't think of the
word!" chimed in Rebecca. "What's the female of hero? Whatever it is,
that's what Mrs. Baxter called her!"

"Clara Belle's the female of Simpson; that's what she is," Miss Miranda
asserted; "but she's been brought up to use her wits, and I ain't sayin'
but she used em."

"I should say she did!" exclaimed Miss Jane; "to put that screaming,
suffering child in the baby-carriage and run all the way to the doctor's
when there wasn't a soul on hand to advise her! Two or three more such
actions would make the Simpson name sound consid'rable sweeter in this
neighborhood."

"Simpson will always sound like Simpson to me!" vouchsafed the elder
sister, "but we've talked enough about em an' to spare. You can go
along, Rebecca; but remember that a child is known by the company she
keeps."

"All right, Aunt Miranda; thank you!" cried Rebecca, leaping from the
chair on which she had been twisting nervously for five minutes. "And
how does this strike you? Would you be in favor of my taking Clara Belle
a company-tart?"

"Don't Mrs. Fogg feed the young one, now she's taken her right into the
family?"

"Oh, yes," Rebecca answered, "she has lovely things to eat, and Mrs.
Fogg won't even let her drink skim milk; but I always feel that taking
a present lets the person kno