s in
the skirt, and Semantha Lee said that nobody in Boston thought of making
up less than four. But mother's wise counsel reconciled me. She said
that the Allens knew we had no money to spend on fine clothes, and would
only expect me to be clean and neat and well-behaved.

"Ephraim, too, praised me boldly to my face, and pretended to think that
nothing could be so becoming as my faded hood. It was yellow silk, and
was made out of a turban that mother had worn when she was a girl.

"After I was in the sleigh with Ephraim, all my unhappiness and anxiety
fled, and I enjoyed every bit of the ride. It was a lonely road, and
part of the way it went through the woods where the lately fallen snow
lay in pure white sheets that were written all over with the tracks of
birds, and rabbits and other wild animals; and the stillness of the
great woods was so deep and solemn that our love-talk was silenced, and
we rode on singing hymns. Then out of the woods, and sweeping down into
a hollow where pleasant farms were nestled snugly together, and so up
to Ephraim's door. Mr. Jacob Allen was a forehanded farmer, and the
house was by far the best in town.

"When we drove up to the door, Mary Allen was at the window, watching
for us. She ran out to the sleigh, and when Ephraim told her here was
her sister Mercy, she laughed, and shook hands,--women did not kiss each
other then,--and said she was glad I was come to stay a week. So my
meeting her was not at all dreadful.

"While Ephraim went around to put up the horse, Mary took me into the
fore-room, where there was a fire, and helped me with my things, and was
as sociable as if she had known me all her life.

"The room was a great deal nicer than anything I had ever seen. I was
almost afraid to step on the carpet at first; but then I remembered that
it must have been meant to be stepped on, or it wouldn't have been laid
on the floor.

"Pretty soon Mrs. Allen and Prudence came in. Mrs. Allen was a very
notable woman, and when she had told me how she made her cheese, and
that she put down her butter in cedar firkins,--she seemed to think that
pine ones were not fit for a Christian to use, and that my mother must
be a terribly shiftless person to put up with them,--she said she must
go and see to the pies that were baking. I don't think she was still
five minutes at a time while I was there, but just driving about the
house from morning till night. And yet there were her two girls to he