prettily every time she was addressed.

Harriet Jameson was really an exceedingly pretty girl, with a kind of
apologetic sweetness and meekness of manner which won her friends.
Her dress that afternoon was pretty, too: a fine white lawn trimmed
with very handsome embroidery, and a white satin ribbon at the waist
and throat. I understood afterward that Mrs. Jameson did not allow
her daughters to wear their best clothes generally to our village
festivities, but kept them for occasions in the city, since their
fortunes were reduced, thinking that their old finery, though it
might be a little the worse for wear, was good enough for our
unsophisticated eyes. But that might not have been true; Harriet
was very well dressed that afternoon, at all events.

Mrs. Jameson seemed to be really very affable. She spoke cordially
to us all, and then asked to have some work given her; but, as it
happened, there was nothing cut out except a black dress for the
missionary's wife, and she did not like to strain her eyes working
on black.

"Let me cut something out," said she in her brisk manner; "I have
come here to be useful. What is there needing to be cut out?"

It was Flora Clark who replied, and I always suspected her of a
motive in it, for she had heard about her jumbles by that time. She
said there was a little pair of gingham trousers needed for the
missionary's five-year-old boy, and Mrs. Jameson, without a quiver of
hesitation, asked for the gingham and scissors. I believe she would
have undertaken a suit for the missionary with the same alacrity.