in, regardless alike of my seniority to the rest of the group, and of an

to be crushing dignity; for, much as I liked Captain Yorke, it alwa

e unabashed; and indeed, quit

is with Mr. Livingst

as got a big fam'ly part grown up. I declar', yer pa an' ma is as like me an' Mis' Yorke as two peas is like two more peas, allus kind of hankerin' to be together, jes' a

ent to my parents without

your message wi

got a bit of business with Jim here. Y

by virtue of which I heard every word from my position-"she ain't none too smart at sums if she has had such a lot of schoolin', an' she didn't make it out

pride and personal vanity had received, he raised his

to say' bout what we was just talkin' o

is grizzled locks with the other, as was his wont when he was talking at length,-he generally did talk at length when he

rompt and de

or if you hadn't, maybe I'd a been a little too forehanded, as it were; but it was my

long?" asked J

know on-bless her heart."-Certainly the old man's loyalty to, and affection for, his dear motherly wife was beautiful to see and hear.-"But she ain't here to tell, an', what's more, she don't know nothin' 'bout it to tell. She ain't the kind to go on talkin', talkin' 'bout things she don't know nothin' 'bout; or, s'pose she do

of whom we ever heard him speak disparagingly; his objection to her pr

catter the folks what's livin' around her. But if ye've got a thing to tell that's got a pint, folks mostly likes to hear the ins an' ou

business, would you mind havin'

ient, you know-leastways, not onless it's with you, Jim,"-here a wink of the eye at Jim made evident the playful irony of the exception, for Jim was Matilda's bête noir, and a chronic warfare waged between the two,-"an' she says to me this mornin', says she, 'Pa,' says she,-an' ye might think I hadn't never learned her the Ten Comman'ments, leastways the one about honorin' her father an' mother; but young folks is different behaved from what they was in my day-at least t

n' to is more than me or any one else can tell, Cap," answered Jim, saucily. "You started to te

try early, too, for I'd more 'n common to market for,-Mis' Douglas she told me to bring her cowcumbers for picklin'; an' Mis' Stewart she wanted some chany dishes an' some glasses outer the crockery store,-an' that's considerable way from the dock, you know; an' Mis' Yorke she gimme some bit of flannen she wanted matched,-an' such like arrands takes time. So I says, says

I'll get at the whole story jest as quick by gu

ill no whit disturbed by the freedom of

though I didn't take the trouble to count 'em; an' the way

im; "Sampled 'em," sa

re ain't much smell outer peanuts 'thout they're cookin'. Mis' Yorke, she's a master hand to roast peanuts, does 'em jes' to a turn, an' then ye

d Jim. "Then how did you know,

cars; an' one of them bags hit against a barrow stood there, an' got cut right t

that riddle. Pean

I reckon most of the Millville boys was gettin' ready for to go to that, so they wasn't on hand. Sam himself was there, though, an' it beat all, the takin' he was in over them peanuts; an', to be sure, it was enough to make any creetur' mad, to see them good peanuts go r

first, Cap," interrupted Jim, determined to check the

an' I take it the moral of that is, make the best of a bad bargain. An' there's another teks that says, Don't ye fret over spilt milk; an', bein' a pillar of the church, I reckon you'd like to practise 'em, an' let your light shine afore men.' Now if there's one thing more'n another that Sam prides himself on, its bein' a deacon, an' livin' up to it; an' my speakin' Scriptur' to him was jest a word in season, for he quiets down an' falls to reckonin'. 'Give 'em to me for what you give by the lot, an' throw in the freight,' says I, seein' he meant to make on 'em, 'an' I'll take 'em an' see to th

tant eyes toward

rought 'em over, an' he's took 'em to his own landin'. Soon's I'm rid of my load I'll go after 'em. Hello!" as a blue-coated, brass-buttoned boy from the chief hotel of the place came running into our grounds, and up to the house. "Hello

ccurrence in our family that the sight of one rarely excited any apprehension; and, as all of our immediate household were at present here at our seaside home, I knew that the message could

ing the cablegram in the absence of my parents

row for home, direct to y

not only a relief, but a joyful surprise, and I gave a little shriek of delight, which called forth

will be here in a week or so, and they are coming to us, here to this

zed one another by the hands, and went capering up and down the piazza

t ain't the Pint when the Governor and the Madam ain't on to it. But, Miss Amy, I wouldn't be for turnin' your folks out a

ehold; but there was one exception, for father had privately sighed all summer for our own country home, where he had his fancy farm, extensive and beautifully cultivated grounds, and superb old trees in which his soul delighted. We told him that a branch of one of these last was, in his eyes, worth the whole broad ocean, in which his family so revelled; and he did not deny the soft impeachment. But his patience was not to be much longer tried, for we were to spend a couple of months at Oakland

Jim. And although his name and character had come out scatheless from the trying ordeal of doubt and suspicion which had fallen upon them at that time, it had been otherwise with those of one who had been received as no other than a favored friend and guest in our household; and a young girl whose advantage

these circumstances will be familiar; to those who

d have descended, the only daughter of aunt and uncle Rutherford, having died some years since, when a very little girl. She was exactly of my own age; and this, with the fact that she too was an Amy, had caused me to be regarded by my uncle and aunt, especially the latter, with a peculiar tenderness; and they seemed to feel tha

n their train such a course of sin, sorrow, and tribulation, that my pleasure in them

this unhappy girl had recklessly allowed herself to become heavily involved in debt,-debt from which she saw no means of escape, and which she was resolved not to confess to her guardians. The sight of my diamonds arouse

e careless way in which I had guarded the earrings, she obtained them with little trouble; and after an amount of duplicity and deceit, terrible and shameful to contemplate in a

him by acknowledging her own guilt; and but for the merest accident, which brought about the proverbial "Murder will out" and fixed the crime

s many pleasures and much happiness, had not be

ll-being had come to an end, we were most thankful; and the most of us sti

r some little time longer. But what would it matter to us if we should be left the very last of the summer-residents upon the Point, so long as dear aunt and uncle Rutherford were to be with us? They we

thing of it until their return. Aunt Emily would not have been severe with me, I knew; but I had wished that the face and the voice, which she always associated with her own lost Amy, should speak and plead for my shortcomings in the matter, when it should come to her knowledge. And oh! was I not thankful beyo

beloved by all who knew him well; and the old residents of the place, which had for so many years been his summer-home, considered themselves to be his intimate acquaintances. He was an authority and a law to each one among them. What "the Governor" did,

int all but adored her,-true, wise friend that she had proved to them; and among the

ke his departure to spread the news about the Point. Indeed, he would scarcely wait until I-who regained my senses before it was too late-furnished him with the list for the next day's supplies, which mother had confided to my keeping. In fact, in

uncle Rutherford's unexpected return; they were purely