fancied that his mother had a better right to his
last hour than any younger woman in the land,--
always remembering that "she was a widow, and
he her only son."

Nan ran away to wash her hands, and came
back with the appearance of one who had washed
her face also: and so she had; but there was a
difference in the water.

"Play I'm your father, girls, and remember
that it will be six months before 'that John' will
trouble you again."

With which preface the young man kissed his
former playfellows as heartily as the boy had been
wont to do, when stern parents banished him to
distant schools, and three little maids bemoaned
his fate. But times were changed now; for Di
grew alarmingly rigid during the ceremony; Laura
received the salute like a graceful queen; and Nan
returned it with heart and eyes and tender lips,
making such an improvement on the childish fashion
of the thing that John was moved to support
his paternal character by softly echoing her father's
words,--"Take care of yourself, my little
'Martha.'"

Then they all streamed after him along the
garden-path, with the endless messages and warnings