strates what I mean by personality. There are more guinea pigs than
one in this cold world."

Abiah went to her wheel in silence, and it began to buzz again.

Little Ben went into the room where his father was at work.

The wheel stopped.

"I do love that boy," said Abiah, "notwithstanding all the fault they
find with him."

"So do I, Abiah. I'm glad that you made him my godson. All people are
common in this world except those who have personality. He had a
great-uncle that was just like him, and, Abiah, he became a friend of
Lord Halifax."

"I am afraid that poor little Ben, after all his care of the guinea pig,
will never commend himself to Lord Halifax. But we can not tell."

"No, Abiah, we can not tell, but stranger things have happened, and such
things begin in that way."

CHAPTER VII.

UNCLE TOM, WHO ROSE IN THE WORLD.

LITTLE Ben had some reasons to dread the visits of his two stately aunts
from Nantucket, the schoolmarms, whom his mother called "the girls."

But one November day, as he came home after the arrival of the stage
from Salem, he was met at the door by his uncle with the question:

"Who do you think has come?"

"I don't know, uncle. Josiah?"

"No."

"Brother John from Rhode Island? Esther and Martha from school? Zachary
from Annapolis?"

"Not right yet."

"Esther and Martha from school at Nantucket?"

"Yes; and your Aunt Hannah and Aunt Prudence have come with them, with
bandboxes, caps, snuffboxes, and all. They came on the sloop. It is a
time for little boys to be quiet now, and to keep guinea pigs and such
things well out of sight."

"How long are _they_ going to stay, uncle?"

By "they" he referred to his aunts.

"A week or more, I guess. This will be your still week."

"But I can not keep still, uncle; I am a boy."

Little Benjamin went into the home room and there met his stately aunts,
the school teachers.

There was a great fire in the room, and the pewter platters shone there
like silver. His aunts received him kindly, but in a very condescending
way. They had not yet discovered any "personality" in the short, little
boy of the numerous family.

The aunts delighted in imparting moral instruction, and they saw in
little Ben, as they thought, a useful opportunity for such culture.

That night the family, with the aunts from Nantucket, sat down by the
great fire under the shining platters to hear Uncle Benjamin relate a
marvelous story. Every family has