Cynthia rose softly from her chair, stole swiftly to the bedside, and printed a long, burning kiss on each of their foreheads.
When Mrs.Hopkins came back, she found the maiden lady sitting in her place just as she left her, but rocking in her chair and sobbing as one in sudden pangs of grief.
"It is a great trouble, Miss Cynthy," she said,--"a great trouble to have such a child as Myrtle to think of and to care for.

If she was like our Susan Posey, now!--but we must do the best we can; and if Mr.
Gridley once sets himself to it, you may depend upon it he 'll make it all come right.

I wouldn't take on about it if I was you.

You let me speak to our Mr.Gridley.We all have our troubles.

It is n't everybody that can ride to heaven in a C-spring shay, as my poor husband used to say; and life 's a road that 's got a good many thank-you-ma'ams to go bumpin' over, says he." Miss Badlam acquiesced in the philosophical reflections of the late Mr.
Ammi Hopkins, and left it to his widow to carry out her own suggestion in reference to consulting Master Gridley.