she rises up to be ahead of everybody, and is so kind of solemn-like. I
can't but see the leadings of Providence. What a minister's wife she'd
be, Miss Scudder!--why, all the ladies coming out of prayer-meeting were
speaking of it. You see, they want the Doctor to get married;--it seems
more comfortable-like to have ministers married; one feels more free to
open their exercises of mind; and as Miss Deacon Twitchel said to
me,--'If the Lord had made a woman o' purpose, as he did for Adam, he
wouldn't have made her a bit different from Mary Scudder.' Why, the
oldest of us would follow her lead,--'cause she goes before us without
knowing it."

"I feel that the Lord has greatly blessed me in such a child," said Mrs.
Scudder, "and I feel disposed to wait the leadings of Providence."

"Just exactly," said Miss Prissy, giving a shake to her silk; "and as
Miss Twitchel said, in this case every providence seems to p'int. I felt
dreadfully for her along six months back; but now I see how she's been
brought out, I begin to see that things are for the best, perhaps, after
all. I can't help feeling that Jim Marvyn is gone to heaven, poor
fellow! His father is a deacon,--and such a good man!--and Jim, though
he did make a great laugh wherever he went, and sometimes laughed where
he hadn't ought to, was a noble-hearted fellow. Now, to be sure, as the
Doctor says, 'amiable instincts a'n't true holiness'; but then they are
better than unamiable ones, like Simeon Brown's. I do think, if that man
is a Christian, he is a dreadful ugly one; he snapped me short up about
my change, when he settled with me last Tuesday; and if I hadn't felt
that it was a sinful rising, I should have told him I'd never put foot
in his house again; I'm glad, for my part, he's gone out of our church.
Now Jim Marvyn was like a prince to poor people; and I remember once his
mother told him to settle with me, and he gave me 'most double, and