d they turned down toward the stem
end of the pear, and if Boston had not held on good and strong in those
early years it might in some high wind have been twisted off and left an
island.

It does not look, to-day, much as it did when Doris first saw it.
Charles River has shrunken, Back Bay has been filled up. It has
stretched out everywhere and made itself a marvelous city. The Common
has changed as well, and is more beautiful than one could have imagined
then, but a thousand old recollections cling to it.

They left the streets behind. Sleigh riding was the great winter
amusement then, but you had to take it in cold weather, for the salt air
all about softened the snow the first mild day. There was no factory
smoke or dust to mar it, and it lay in great unbroken sheets. There were
people skating on Back Bay, and chairs on runners with ladies well
wrapped up in furs, and sleds of every description.

They came up around the other side and saw the wharves and the idle
shipping and the white-capped islands in the harbor. Now the wind _did_
nearly blow you away.

The next day was very lowering and chilly. Uncle Winthrop had to go to a
dinner among some notables. Miss Recompense always brushed his hair and
tied the queue. Young men did not wear them, but some of the older
people thought leaving them off was aping youthfulness. He put on his
black velvet smallclothes, his silk stockings and low shoes with silver
buckles, his flowered waistcoat, his high stock and fine French
broadcloth coat. His shirt front had two full ruffles beautifully
crimped. Miss Recompense did it with a penknife.

"You look just like a picture, Uncle Winthrop," Doris exclaimed
admiringly. "Party clothes _do_ make one handsomer. I suppose it isn't
good for one to be handsome all the time."

"We should grow too vain," he answered smilingly, yet he did enjoy the
honest praise.

"Perhaps if we were used to it all the time it would not seem so
beautiful. It would get to be everyday-like, and you would not think
about it."

True enough. He had a fancy Madam Royall did not think half so much
about her apparel as some of the more strenuous people who referred
continually to conscience.

"Good-by. Maybe you will be in bed when I come back."

"Oh, will you be gone that late?" She stood upon a stool and reached
over to give him a parting kiss, if she could not see him until
to-morrow, and she did not even touch his immaculate ruffles.

It was gro