about thirty but there were some premature lines round her mouth and eyes which told of early anxiety himself was much changed his thin of hair was nearly white and his walk was no longer firm and upright but his glance was calm and even cheerful and his neat linen told of a woman s care did not take all her love from the earth when she died she had left some of it in s heart all the other children were now grown up and had gone their several ways you will be glad to hear had shown remarkable talents ns an engineer his cheeks are till ruddy in spite of mixed and his eyes are still large and blue but in other respects his person would e resent no marks of for is friend mrs if she were to see him especially now that her eyes must be grown very dim with the wear of more than twenty additional years he is nearly six feet high and has a broad chest he wears spectacles and his large white hands through a mass of shaggy brown hair but i am sure you no doubt that mr richard is a thoroughly good fellow as well as a man of talent and you will be glad any day to shake hands with him for his own sake as well as his mother s alone remains by her father s side and makes the evening of his life mr s love story chapter i when old mr died thirty years ago there was general sorrow in and if black cloth had not b n hang round the pulpit and reading desk by order of his nephew and principal the would certainly have the necessary sum out of their own pockets rather than allow such a tribute of respect to be wanting all the farmers wives brought out their black and mrs at the wharf by appearing the first sunday after mr death in her salmon colored ribbons and green shawl excited the remark to be sure mrs was a and town so that she could hardly be expected to have very clear notions of what was proper but as mrs observed in an to mrs when they were coming out of church her husband who d been born i the parish might ha told her better an to put on black on all occasions or too great an alacrity in putting ii argued in mrs s opinion a dangerous levity of character and an unnatural to the e fitness of some folks can t a bear to put off their she remarked but that the way i my family why mrs m the time i was married till mr died nine year ago come i was out o black two year together ah said mrs who was conscious of inferiority in this respect there is n t many families as had so many deaths as mrs mrs who was an elderly widow well left reflected with that mrs s observation was no more than just and that mrs very likely belonged to a family which had had to speak of even dirty dame who was a very rare church had been to mrs to beg a bit of old and with this sign of grief pinned on little bonnet was seen dropping her courtesy opposite the this of respect towards mr s memory on the part of dame had no il bearing whatever it was due to an event which had occurred years back and which i am to s� y had left that old lady as to the means of grace as ever dame kept and was understood to have such remarkable influence over those wilful animals in them to bite under the most circumstances that though her own were usually rejected from a suspicion that had lost their appetite she her self was constantly called in to apply the more lively individuals furnished from mr pilgrim s when as was very often the case one of that clever man s paying was attacked with thus in addition to property supposed to yield her no less than half a crown a week was in the receipt of professional the gross amount mb s love story of which was va y estimated by her neighbors as an j � � moreover drove a trade in with who purchased that luxury at the rate of two hundred per cent nevertheless with all these of income the old woman constantly pleaded poverty and ed for scraps at mn hack it s who though she always said mrs was as as two folks and no better than a and a heathen had yet a towards her as an old there s that case hardened old a th tea leaves mrs say an i m fool h to give em her though sally wants em all the while to sweep the floors with was dame whom mr riding leisurely in top boots and spurs from doing duty at one warm afternoon ob sitting in the dry ditch near her cottage and by her side a large pig who with that ease and confidence belonging to friendship was lying with his in her lap and making no effort to play the agreeable beyond an occasional i why mrs said the i did n t know yon had such a fine pig you ll have rare at christmas eh forbid my son him me two ear ago an he s been company to ms sin i could n t find i my heart to part wi m if i the taste o bacon fat again why he eat his head off and ours too how can you go on keeping a pig and making nothing by him o he a bit wi and i mind doing wi ont to gi him a bit o s meat an drink too an he me about and when to m just 