But Miss Lee was unusually energetic and helpful, desirous of having
every thing about her neat and tasteful, and not afraid to do
something towards it with her own hands.

Being the eldest daughter, the entire charge of the family had
devolved upon her since the death of her mother, which had occurred
about ten years before. Within this time, her brothers and sisters
had been married, and now she and her father were all that were left
at the old homestead.

Their servants, too, had dwindled away. Some had been given to the sons
and daughters when they left the parental roof; some had died,
and others had been sold to pay debts and furnish the means of living.
Old Rosa, the cook, Nancy, the waiting-maid, and Methuselah,
the ancient gardener, were all the house-servants that remained.
So they lived in a very quiet and frugal way; and Miss Matilda's
activities, not being entirely engrossed with family cares,
found employment in the nurture of flowers and pets.

The grounds in front of the old-fashioned mansion had been laid out
originally in very elaborate style; and, though of late years they had been
greatly neglected, they still retained traces of their former splendor.
The rose-vines on the inside of the enclosure had grown over the low,
brick wall, to meet and mingle with the trees and bushes outside,
till together they formed a solid and luxuriant mass of verdure.
White and crimson roses shone amid the dark, glossy foliage
of the mountain-laurel, which held up with sturdy stem its own
rich clusters of fluted cups, that seemed to assert equality with
the queen of flowers, and would not be eclipsed by the fragrant
loveliness of their beautiful dependents. The borders of box,