"The floor is pretty," she said, regarding it with pride, "and I would make
flowers too, but that thy father thinks it vain, and Friend Pemberton would
set his bridge spectacles on his nose, and look at me, until I said naughty
words, oh, very! Come out; I will find thee some ripe damsons, and save
thee cake for thy supper, if Friend Warder does not eat it all. He is a
little man, and eats much. A solicitous man," and she became of a sudden
the person she had in mind, looking somehow feeble and cautious and uneasy,
with arms at length, and the palms turned forward, so that I knew it for
Joseph Warder, a frequent caller, of whom more hereafter.

"What is so--solicitous?" I said.

"Oh, too fearful concerning what may be thought of him. Vanity, vanity!
Come, let us run down the garden. Canst thou catch me, Hugh!" And with this
she fled away, under the back stoop and through the trees, light and
active, her curls tumbling out, while I hurried after her, mindful of
damsons, and wondering how much cake Friend Warder would leave for my
comfort at evening.

Dear, ever dear lady, seen through the mist of years! None was like you,
and none as dear, save one who had as brave a soul, but far other ways and
charms.

And thus began my life at school, to which I went twice a day, my father
not approving of the plan of three sessions a day, which was common, nor,
for some reason, I know not what, of schools kept by Friends. So it was
that I set out before eight, and went again from two to four. My master,
David Dove, kept his school in Vidall's Alley, nigh to Chestnut, above
Second. There were many boys and girls, and of the former John Warder, and
Graydon, who wrote certain memoirs long after. His mother, a widow, kept