Year: 1865

| W 5uuJ my C1Cb anu IlcTe COlHcS
Willie over the hill, as l used to see
him coming when | sat waiting for
him at the farmhouse window
Sometimes on horseback but often
er on foot, for the hall was not very
far away. Nowadays you see the
men and boys all dressed alike in
black, or with (maybe) bit Of gray
or brown. 1t was not so then.-
Will wore a blue coat with gilt but
tons, and knee breeches, and silk
stockings, and buckles in his shoes
and a silk vest; and on gala days
claret-color and white silk. Hand
some in any ones eyes and wonder
fully so in mine for | was half Qua
keress half Methodist, and never had
worn anything gay myself.
Tall! Surely he was tall. New
er Haslet undersix feet, and broad
er in his shoulders than any of his
age. Straight featured and rosy,
aud just twenty-five.


Wills father was rich Squire Has
let, and they lived at the Hall, a
grand house, we thought it, for we
were plain people. Father Quak-
er, Mother a Methodist, and he kept
to the plain dress and language all
his life. In those days there never
was a Methodist who wore gay col
ors or new fashions, and mother
took to the poke bonnets and grave
dresses naturally.


So we were quiet enough, not
picture nor an ornamentin the house.
Not a fiddle although brother Barzal-
liza begged to have one. At dusk
Saturday night work was put away,
the house clean and not so much as
mouthful cooked the Sabbath thro
Everything cold and mother put
tho key in her pocket, and took US
girls one way to Methodist meeting,
and father took the boys to Quaker
meeting-lor that was the compact.
and they never let religion come be-
tween them.


1t was all so different at h
Squires. The curtains and carpets
and Mrs Haslet's cape oil usiow
with color. And Suoday feast
day, with more work for the servants
than any other; and guests down
from the city, and the piano-such
wonder to all-and the harp play
ing. They went to church if they
chose aud sat in the Squire's high
backed pew with curtains. Mother
used to say-she was a bit prcju-
diced-that what with the organ
and altar cloths and fonts and cary
ings and painted windows and gay
bonnets, the Episcopal church, for
all the world, was like playhouse.
Sister Ellis used to say to me, for
all that I'd like pink bonnet my
self, and 90 where there is music in
the church.


Ellis hadn'ta a Quaker bone in her
body nor a Methodist drop in her
blood. | always wondered WiiI
didn't come a-wooing her instead oil
me.


/ was bit OF a thing with blue
eyes aud a skin like waz-not
drop Of color in it, and didn't there
come an artist, who painted minia-
lures, to our place one summer and
tell me my face was classical, and
nearer the 'antique' than anything
he ever saw. | was pleased with
the first but the last worried me, for
do what | could-though it sounded
like a compliment-I could make
no meaning of antique but old, so |
asked Willie, and he said,


Come to my house and Ill show
you


So mother letme and | went there.
In the drawing-room on a stand was
woman in marble-that is the face
and neck of woman and down to
the waist. A bust he called it.
SAYS Will, that is antique. 1t is my
Psyche, and more like you than any
picture could be-


Never like me- | said and then
l blushed and turned away, for not
q tucker nor a scarf had she-and |
felt ashamed.


1t was a splendid house; too
grand it seemed to me to live in
and he took me all over it even to
the hot-house, where summer flow
ers grew in winter time, and he put
some in my hair.


white, said he; you look best in
white


One night l Iheard father and moth
er talking by the kitchen-fre.


Says mother, it's wrong to stand
in the girls way, though he is Epis-
copal. And think of her being mis-
tress of the Hall, and riding in a
coach.


Thee thinks too much of the
world, Eunice, says father.
But remember, Elias, said moth
er its a chance that comes to few
And she'd be good to Ellis if we