lp
her, and mother and I did the work for eight, and took in spinning all
the year round.

"I think Prudence didn't like housework. She was very intimate with
Semantha Lee; and what Semantha said and did and wore was pretty much
all her talk. All that week she was at work on old gowns, altering them
to be like Semantha's. Prudence didn't seem to fancy me at the very
first; and though I don't want to speak evil of her, she was certainly
rather a hard person to get along with.

"One day she would remark that I would be quite good-looking if my nose
wasn't such a pug. And another day that it was a pity I had red hair,
for really my other features were not so bad; and she said that my gown
was just like one she had hung up in the garret; and so in this way she
picked me to pieces, until it seemed as if she couldn't find a good
thing in me. But this was not as bad as the way in which she talked to
me about Semantha.

"Nobody was so handsome or so good or so smart as Semantha; and Deacon
Lee was the most forehanded man in town. As a great secret, she told me
that Ephraim and Semantha were once as good as engaged, and she didn't
doubt, if anything should happen to break up the match between Ephraim
and me, that Ephraim would go back to Semantha.

"I was terribly angry at this, and I felt my lips stiffen, and it was as
much as I could do to say, 'What could happen to break our engagement?
Ephraim is solemnly promised to me, and it is just the same in God's
sight as if we were married.'

"Prudence looked at me a minute, and then said she 'had no idea I had
such a temper. She had heard that I talked of uniting with the church,
but after what she had seen, she shouldn't think--' And here she
stopped, and it was as much what was not said as what she did say that
vexed me so. I was heartily thankful that she was only a half-sister to
Ephraim, for I began to fear I should hate her.

"With all this Mary did not seem to dare to be her own pleasant self,
and even Ephraim acted as if he wasn't quite at his ease. I began to be
sadly homesick. I almost hated the sight of the carpet on the floor, and
the high-curtained bedstead, and the tall chimney-glass, and I longed
for the love and peace of my humble home.

"I had been at Mrs. Allen's three days, when Semantha Lee came over to
spend the day. She came in the morning, and sent back the hired man
with the sleigh, because she meant to stay all night with Prudence.

"Semantha was d