avin' it in his mind to bring Naomi
somethin'."

"Yes, and she had a faculty of puttin' of 'em on," said Miss Roxy, with
a decisive shake of the head. "Naomi was a still girl, but her faculty
was uncommon; and I tell you, Ruey, 'tain't everybody hes faculty as hes
things."

"The poor Cap'n," said Miss Ruey, "he seemed greatly supported at the
funeral, but he's dreadful broke down since. I went into Naomi's room
this morning, and there the old man was a-sittin' by her bed, and he had
a pair of her shoes in his hand,--you know what a leetle bit of a foot
she had. I never saw nothin' look so kind o' solitary as that poor old
man did!"

"Well," said Miss Roxy, "she was a master-hand for keepin' things,
Naomi was; her drawers is just a sight; she's got all the little
presents and things they ever give her since she was a baby, in one
drawer. There's a little pair of red shoes there that she had when she
wa'n't more'n five year old. You 'member, Ruey, the Cap'n brought 'em
over from Portland when we was to the house a-makin' Mis' Pennel's
figured black silk that he brought from Calcutty. You 'member they cost
just five and sixpence; but, law! the Cap'n he never grudged the money
when 'twas for Naomi. And so she's got all her husband's keepsakes and
things just as nice as when he give 'em to her."

"It's real affectin'," said Miss Ruey, "I can't all the while help
a-thinkin' of the Psalm,--

"'So fades the lovely blooming flower,--
Frail, smiling solace of an hour;
So quick our transient comforts fly,
And pleasure only blooms to die.'"

"Yes," said Miss Roxy; "and, Ruey, I was a-thinkin' whether or no it
wa'n't best to pack away them things, 'cause Naomi hadn't fixed no baby
drawers, and we seem to want some."

"I was kind o' hintin' that to Mis' Pennel this morning," said Ruey,
"but she can't seem to want to have 'em touched."

"Well, we may just as well come to such things first as last," said Aunt
Roxy; "'cause if the Lord takes our friends, he does take 'em; and we
can't lose 'em and have 'em too, and we may as well give right up at
first, and done with it, that they are gone, and we've got to do without
'em, and not to be hangin' on to keep things just as they was."

"So I was a-tellin' Mis' Pennel," said Miss Ruey, "but she'll come to it
by and by. I wish the baby might live, and kind o' grow up into her
mother's place."

"Well," said Miss Roxy, "I wish it might, but there'd be a sight o'
t