they all caught it, like the measles or the whooping-cough.

"And the minister a-telling how the deacon brought his young wife here
when 't wa'n't nothing but a wilderness, and how patiently she bore
hardship, and what a good wife she'd been! Now the minister wouldn't
have known anything about that if the deacon hadn't told him. Dear!
Dear! If he'd only told Mis' Brown herself what he thought, I do believe
he might have saved the funeral.

"And when the minister said how the children would miss their mother,
seemed as though they couldn't stand it, poor things!

"Well, I guess it is true enough,--Mis' Brown was always doing for some
of them. When they was singing about sweet rest in heaven, I couldn't
help thinking that that was something Mis' Brown would have to get used
to, for she never had none of it here.

"She'd have been awful pleased with the flowers. They was pretty, and no
mistake. Ye see, the deacon wa'n't never willing for her to have a
flower-bed. He said 't was enough prettier sight to see good cabbages
a-growing; but Mis' Brown always kind of hankered after sweet-smelling
things, like roses and such.

"What did you say, Levi? 'Most time for supper? Well, land's sake, so it
is! I must have got to meditating. I've been a-thinking, Levi, you
needn't tell the minister anything about me. If the pancakes and pumpkin
pies are good, you just say so as we go along. It ain't best to keep
everything laid up for funerals."

_It is the grand secret of a happy home to express the affection you