ed down into the shining eyes. He had not thought much of making
anyone happy latterly. Indeed, he believed he had laid all the real joys
of life in his wife's grave. He was proud of his son, of course, and he
did everything for his advancement. But a simple thing like this!

"We have been studying all the afternoon, Betty and I. She is so good to
me. And to think, Uncle Win, she had read the Bible all through when she
was eight years old, and made a shirt. All the little girls make one for
their father. And he gave her a silver half-dollar with a hole in it,
and she put a blue ribbon through it and means to keep it always. But I
haven't any father. And I began to read the Bible on Sunday. It will
take me two years," with a long sigh. "I used to read the Psalms to Miss
Arabella, and there was a portion for every day. They are just a month
long, when the month has thirty days."

Her chatter was so pleasant. Several times through the day her soft
voice had haunted him.

Aunt Elizabeth came in with her big kitchen apron tied over her best
afternoon gown. She didn't scold very hard, but she thought Uncle Win
might better be careful of the small fortune coming to Doris, since she
had neither father nor brother to augment it. And they would make Betty
as vain as a peacock in all her finery.

Betty returned laden with patterns and her eyes as bright as stars. Jane
Morse had promised to come over in the morning and help her cut her
gown. Jane was a very "handy" girl, and prided herself on knowing enough
about "mantua making" to get her living if she had need. At that period
nearly every family did the sewing of all kinds except the outside wear
for men. And fashions were as eagerly sought for and discussed among the
younger people as in more modern times. The old Puritan attire was still
in vogue. Not so many years before the Revolution the Royalists'
fashions, both English and French, had been adopted. But the cocked hats
and scarlet coats, the flowing wigs and embroidered waistcoats, had been
swept away by the Continental style. For women, high heels and high caps
had run riot, and hoops and flowing trains of brocades and velvets and
glistening silks. And now the wife of the First Consul of France was the
Empress Josephine, and the Empire style had swept away the pompadour and
everything else. It had the advantage of being more simple, though quite
as costly.

Uncle Win and Uncle Leverett talked politics after supper, one