als, to the soldier his cross of the Legion of
Honor, and to Aunt Jane her silver cups. All the triumph of a humble
life was symbolized in these shining things. They were simple and
genuine as the days in which they were made. A few of them boasted a
beaded edge or a golden lining, but no engraving or embossing marred
their silver purity. On the bottom of each was the stamp: "John B.
Akin, Danville, Ky." There they stood,

"Filled to the brim with precious memories,"--

memories of the time when she and Abram had worked together in field
or garden or home, and the County Fair brought to all a yearly
opportunity to stand on the height of achievement and know somewhat
the taste of Fame's enchanted cup.

"There's one for every child and every grandchild," she said, quietly,
as she began wrapping them in the silky paper, and storing them
carefully away in the cupboard, there to rest until the day when
children and grandchildren would claim their own, and the treasures of
the dead would come forth from the darkness to stand as heirlooms on
fashionable sideboards and damask-covered tables.

"Did you ever think, child," she said, presently, "how much piecin' a
quilt's like livin' a life? And as for sermons, why, they ain't no
better sermon to me than a patchwork quilt, and the doctrines is right
there a heap plainer'n they are in the catechism. Many a time I've set
and listened to Parson Page preachin' about predestination and
free-will, and I've said to myself, 'Well, I ain't never been through
Centre College up at Danville, but if I could jest git up in the
pulpit with one of my quilts, I could make it a heap plainer to folks
than parson's makin' it with all his big words.' You see, you start
out with jest so much caliker; you don't go to the store and pick it
out and buy it, but the neighbors will give you a piece here and a
piece there, and you'll have a piece left every time you cut out a
dress, and you take jest what happens to come. And that's like
predestination. But when it comes to the cuttin' out, why, you're free
to choose your own pattern. You can give the same kind o' pieces to
two persons, and one'll make a 'nine-patch' and one'll make a
'wild-goose chase,' and there'll be two quilts made out o' the same
kind o' pieces, and jest as different as they can be. And that is jest
the way with livin'. The Lord sends us the pieces, but we can cut 'em
out and put 'em together pretty much to suit ourselves, and th