not askin' anybody's help, but just as quiet and proud about it! She's
her mother, all over. And yest'day, when she set here waitin' for the
stage, and it did seem as if I should have to give up, hearin' her
sob, sob, sob,--why, Mr. Goodlow, she hadn't any more idea of backin'
out than--than--" Miss Maria relinquished the search for a comparison,
and went into another room for a handkerchief. "I don't believe she
cared over and above about goin', from the start," said Miss Maria,
returning, "but when once she'd made up her mind to it, there she
was. I d'know as she _took_ much of a fancy to her aunt, but you
couldn't told from anything that Lyddy said. Now, if I have anything
on my mind, I have to blat it right out, as you may say; I can't seem
to bear it a minute; but Lyddy's different. Well," concluded Miss
Maria, "I guess there ain't goin' to any harm come to her. But it did
give me a kind of start, first off, when father up and got to feelin'
sort of bad about it. I d'know as I should thought much about it, if
he hadn't seemed to. I d'know as I should ever thought about anything
except her not havin' any one to advise with about her clothes. It's
the only thing she ain't handy with: she won't know what to wear. I'm
afraid she'll spoil her silk. I d'know but what father's _been_
hasty in not lookin' into things carefuller first. He most always does
repent afterwards."

"Couldn't repent beforehand!" retorted Deacon Latham. "And I tell you,
Maria, I never saw a much finer man than Captain Jenness; and the
cabin's everything I said it was, and more. Lyddy reg'larly went off
over it; 'n' I guess, as Mr. Goodlow says, she'll influence 'em for
good. Don't you fret about her clothes any. You fitted her out in
apple-pie order, and she'll soon be there. 'T ain't but a little
ways to Try-East, any way, to what it is some of them India voyages,
Captain Jenness said. He had his own daughters out the last voyage;