on: "Isn't it queer how different people seem to other people?"

"That's rather a blind saying, Happy. What do you mean?"

“Oh! I was thinking what I heard Mrs. Palmer say to somebody, when she saw the minister's wife. 'Well,' said she, 'I've took a good look at her, and I don't believe but what the fire'll fly some, in the kitchen: them eyes don't look as though she could be browbeat, and Delia Lamb's a real masterful piece.' But I didn't think that about Mrs. Payson. I thought her eyes were kind and sweet, mother, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did, Happy; but I thought they looked decided too. I should say Mrs. Payson had naturally a warm, quick temper, but controlled it well. Temper is a good thing if it is kept under. I remember father was very fond of a saying, out of some old divine's writings: Anger is one of the sinews of the soul; he that wants it, hath a maimed mind.' You know the Bible says, Be ye angry and sin not.'

"I never could understand that, mother."

"I suppose it means there are some things we ought to be angry about: a great injustice, or cruelty, inflicted on others, or open and shameless sin. But I don't at all think Mrs. Payson and Delia will have trouble, though they both have

naturally quick tempers. Delia has got the rein on hers too."

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Mother, didn't you know Delia before you came here to live, a good while?"

"I used to go to school with her in Dorset, Happy; she is only a little older than I am."

"I shouldn't think she would like to hire out," said Happy, thoughtfully.

"Oh! it must be dreadful to be a servant; I should think she would have gone out sewing, or to a factory, or taught school, if she had to earn her living."

"She did very much better, Happy. Her father was a poor farmer, and a drunkard at that, and her mother bed-ridden. Delia only went to school a little while, she could not be spared at home. She never had education enough to teach; but she had to learn housework, for she had to do it. When her mother died she was twenty-five, and her father would have been a town pauper but for her help. Delia has a great deal of pride naturally, but she is an honest Christian woman; and she told me once how she sat down and figured out' as she said, her best course. If she went out to sew, her health would give way, for she was used to stirring about and having plenty of air; she had seen too many seamstresses break down not to dread that sort of

work, for if she lost her health she could not sup port her father or herself; then factory work would be equally confining, and though wages were good she would have her board to pay, whereas, if she went out to service, she would have the work she was used to, good food, some time to herself, and wages that, with the rent of their old house, would provide for her father; so she went to live at Squire Ellis's. She said, 'It went against the grain consider'ble at first, but I'd made up my mind deliberate, and I wan't a goin' to back down with the first wind that blew. I said to myself, sez I, "Delye Lamb, ef you ain't respectable enough to be hired help, you ain't respectable enough for anything!" an' I stuck to that; it helped me mightily to call to mind what the Lord said: "But I am among you as he that serveth." She was quite right, Happy; she is a healthy, happy woman to-day. Her father died in a year or two after she went to the Judge's, but Delia had found her place, and kept it. Every rightminded person who knows her respects her: the rest she is not concerned about."

"But mother, does she have any friends?"

"Plenty, Happy. There is many a house in this town where Delia is always welcome. She is not invited to parties, or asked out to tea, though sometimes Miss Lavinny or Widow Skinner do get hold of her when the minister's away; but her work does

not leave her time for much visiting, and Delia knows it is not her place to visit familiarly at houses where she has still kind and true friends. Happy, if I should die before you, I should ask nothing better for you than such a home in such a family as that where Delia is fixed."

Happy did not answer. She could not face either the possibility of her mother's death, or her own taking a menial position. But Mrs. Dodd's words did just what she intended-set Happy thinking, and prepared the way for a future that might, no doubt, be long delayed, yet also might arrive suddenly. She had sowed this seed in its place; and there she left it, with a silent prayer that God would give the increase in his time.

CHAPTER XI.

HAPPY'S little Sunday-class gathered accessions very slowly; sometimes a new face would be seen one Sunday, and never again; those who did come were uncertain and unpunctual in attendance at first; but before the spring came there were six who could be counted on, three beside Nan and Jack and Pauline. It sometimes seemed to Happy that going from her well-dressed, intelligent class in the morning to these wild children in the afternoon, was like going from a flower garden to an unreclaimed swamp; yet for this first year she seemed to have made as little impression on her "good" class as in the last six months on her "bad" one, for in this way she distinguished them to herself. Indeed, if there were any signs of progress, it was among the younger set; for they began to wear clean faces, brushed shoes, ill-mended clothes; and the girls showed an instinct for ornament that Mrs. Dodd advised Happy to respect, as a symptom, however slight and poor, of awakening self-respect.