you, when I never did, they would wonder at my being as good as I am."

Mrs. Carter was too furious to venture a verbal reply; so seizing the
starch bowl she hurled it with the remainder of the contents at the
head of the little vixen, who, with an elastic bound not entirely
unlike a somersault dodged the missile, which passed on and fell upon
the hearthrug.

This is but one of a series of similar scenes which occurred between
the widow and her child before the happy day arrived when, in the
presence of a select few of the villagers, Luella Carter was
transformed into Luella Hamilton. The ceremony was scarcely over when
Mr. Hamilton, who for a few days had been rather indisposed,
complained of feeling sick. Immediately Lenora, with a sidelong glance
at her mother, exclaimed, "What, sick of your bargain so quick? It's
sooner even than _I_ thought 'twould be, and I'm sure I'm capable of
judging."

"Dear Lenora," said Mrs. Carter, turning toward one of her neighbors,
"she has such a flow of spirits that I am afraid Mr. Hamilton will
find her troublesome."

"Don't be alarmed, mother; he'll never think of me when you are
around," was Lenora's reply in which Mrs. Carter saw more than one
meaning.

That evening the bridal party repaired to the homestead, where, at Mr.
Hamilton's request, Mrs. Kirby was waiting to receive them. Willie had
been told by the servants that his mother was coming home that night,
and, with the trusting faith of childhood, he had drawn a chair to the