welcome while this uncertainty exists about my brother. Can I trust you all
to be good and obedient if I leave you in charge of Nurse Johnson?" she
asked, lifting her eyes to the young faces around the table.

The best of behavior being readily promised, Mrs. Sherwood soon left the
room to make preparations for the unexpected journey, and early next
morning Mr. Sherwood and his wife were on the train bound for Crofton, the
nearest station to the old home farm.

While they are on the way, a glance at the history of his parents will
explain how matters stand at the homestead.

Squire Sherwood was a well-to-do farmer, who was well known outside of his
own village, having held several public offices at various times, but these
had been given up in order to superintend his fine farm, which years of
toil had brought into a high state of cultivation. Early in life, while
doing business in Louisiana, he had married a southern lady; but a few
years later he came into possession of the farm, and they moved North.

His wife found the change very great, and often sighed for the luxurious
life of her southern home; but she fell into New England ways more readily
than might have been expected. When she moved north, she brought Dinah, who
was her particular property, with her; indeed, Dinah was so much attached
to her young mistress that she refused to be left behind, and life on the
farm was made more endurable by her services. When, in the course of time,
a son was born, he was placed in Dinah's care, and little Clarence was as
fond of his black nurse as was ever the southern-born child of its black
"mammy" of the southern plantation.

But Mrs. Sherwood did not lose her individuality by her marriage. The