s, 'cause Roxy she says she never see
nothin' so rotten as that 'ere twist we've been a-workin' with, that
Mis' Pennel got over to Portland; it's a clear cheat, and Mis' Pennel
she give more'n half a cent a stick more for 't than what Roxy got for
her up to Brunswick; so you see these 'ere Portland stores charge up,
and their things want lookin' after."

Here Mrs. Pennel entered the room, "the Captain" addressing her
eagerly,--

"How came you to let Aunt Roxy take Mara off so far, and be gone so
long?"

"Why, law me, Captain Pennel! the little thing seems kind o' lonesome.
Chil'en want chil'en; Miss Roxy says she's altogether too sort o' still
and old-fashioned, and must have child's company to chirk her up, and so
she took her down to play with Sally Kittridge; there's no manner of
danger or harm in it, and she'll be back to-morrow afternoon, and Mara
will have a real good time."

"Wal', now, really," said the good man, "but it's 'mazin' lonesome."

"Cap'n Pennel, you're gettin' to make an idol of that 'ere child," said
Miss Ruey. "We have to watch our hearts. It minds me of the hymn,--

"'The fondness of a creature's love,
How strong it strikes the sense,--
Thither the warm affections move,
Nor can we call them hence.'"

Miss Ruey's mode of getting off poetry, in a sort of high-pitched
canter, with a strong thump on every accented syllable, might have
provoked a smile in more sophisticated society, but Zephaniah listened
to her with deep gravity, and answered,--

"I'm 'fraid there's truth in what you say, Aunt Ruey. When her mother
was called away, I thought that was a warning I never should forget; but
now I seem to be like Jonah,--I'm restin' in the shadow of my gourd, and
my heart is glad because of it. I kind o' trembled at the prayer meetin'
when we was a-singin',--

"'The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.'"

"Yes," said Miss Ruey, "Roxy says if the Lord should take us up short on
our prayers, it would make sad work with us sometimes."

"Somehow," said Mrs. Pennel, "it seems to me just her mother over again.
She don't look like her. I think her hair and complexion comes from the
Badger blood; my mother had that sort o' hair and skin,--but then she
has ways like Naomi,--and it seems as if the Lord had kind o' given
Naomi back to us; so I hope she's goin' to be spared to us."

Mrs. Pe