her to live up to her character. She was not very quick to give
promises, but she often boasted that, once she gave one, nothing would
ever induce her to break it. She was very fiery and hot-tempered, but
as a rule she did not fly out about trifles, and there was a certain
grandeur about her nature which accorded well with her fine physique
and upright bearing.

Bet was an only child for several years. It is true that many little
brothers and sisters had been carried away to the cemetery, but none
lived until two puny boys put in so feeble an appearance that the
neighbors thought the miserable thing called life could not exist in
their tiny persons more than a day or two. They were twins, and Mrs.
Granger nearly died when she gave them birth. The neighbors said that
it would be a good thing if the broken-down mother and the babes that
nobody wanted all went away together.

"There's a deal too many children in the world," they said; "it would
be good if they was took, poor lambs."

But here Bet, who overheard the words, gave way to one of her bursts
of fury. She turned the offending but well-disposed neighbors out of
the room; she locked the door, and kneeling down by the babies, gave
them a perfect baptism of tears and kisses.

"Who says as they're not wanted?" she sobbed. "I want 'em--I'm allays
a-wanting something, and maybe they'll fill my heart."

From this moment she constituted herself the babies' devoted nurse;
and so, after a fashion, they throve, and did not die.