had contracted no small burden of dust, which Phoebe washed away with so much care and delicacy as to satisfy even the proprietor of this invaluable china.

“What a nice little housewife you are” exclaimed the latter, smiling, and at the Same time frowning so prodigiously that the smile was sunshine under a thunder-cloud. “Do you do other things as well?

Are you as good at your book as you are at washing teacups?”

“Not quite, I am afraid,” said Phoebe, laughing at the form of Hepzibah’s question. “But I was schoolmistress for the little children in our district last summer, and might have been so still.”

“Ah! ‘tis all very well!” observed the maiden lady, drawing herself up.