quarrel, as she put a pin in the back of the ruffled collar which Sallie
had come to reclaim. A quarrel it had evidently been, and as evidently
the lady was mollified, for she said, "Don't be absurd, Jim!" and Jim
laughed and responded, "All right, Sallie, you're an angel! But come, we
must hurry, or the curtain'll be up,"--and away went the dashing and
handsome couple.

Abram, shutting in the shutters, and fastening the door, sat down to a
quiet evening's reading, while his mother knitted and sewed,--an evening
the likeness of a thousand others of which they never tired; for this
mother and son, to whom fate had dealt so hard a measure, upon whom the
world had so persistently frowned, were more to each other than most
mothers and sons whose lines had fallen in pleasanter
places,--compensation, as Mr. Emerson says, being the law of existence
the world over.




CHAPTER III

"_Every one has his day, from which he dates._"

OLD PROVERB


You see, Surrey, the school is something extra, and the performances,
and it will please Clara no end; so I thought I'd run over, and
inveigled you into going along for fear it should be stupid, and I would
need some recreation."