should be frightened and scream!

[Illustration: AT CYNTHY'S DOOR.]

"Cynthy! Cynthy Ann!" she said, standing by the bed in the little bare
room which Cynthy Ann had occupied, for five years, but into which she
had made no endeavor to bring one ray of sentiment or one trace
of beauty.

"Cynthy! Cynthy Ann!"

Had Cynthy Ann slept anywhere but in the L of the house, her
shriek--what woman could have helped shrieking a little when
startled?--her shriek must have alarmed the family. But it did not.
"Why, child! what are you doing here? You are out of your head, and you
must go back to your room at once." And Cynthy had arisen and was
already tugging at Julia's arm.

"I a'n't out of my head, Cynthy Ann, and I _won't_ go back to my
room--not until I have had a talk with you."

"What _is_ the matter, Jule?" said Cynthy, sitting on the bed and
preparing to begin again her old fight between duty and inclination.
Cynthy always expected temptation. She had often said in class-meeting
that temptations abounded on every hand, and as soon as Julia told her
she had a communication to make, Cynthy Ann was sure that she would find
in it some temptation of the devil to do something she "hadn't orter
do," according to the Bible or the Dis_cip_line, strictly construed.
And Cynthy was a "strict constructionist."