"
"She'll make a dif'rence," acknowledged Jane, "but she may turn
out more biddable than we think."
"She'll mind when she's spoken to, biddable or not," remarked
Miranda with a shake of the last towel.
Miranda Sawyer had a heart, of course, but she had never used it
for any other purpose than the pumping and circulating of blood.
She was just, conscientious, economical, industrious; a regular
attendant at church and Sunday-school, and a member of the State
Missionary and Bible societies, but in the presence of all these
chilly virtues you longed for one warm little fault, or lacking
that, one likable failing, something to make you sure that she
was thoroughly alive. She had never had any education other than
that of the neighborhood district school, for her desires and
ambitions had all pointed to the management of the house, the
farm, and the dairy. Jane, on the other hand, had gone to an
academy, and also to a boarding-school for young ladies; so had
Aurelia; and after all the years that had elapsed there was still
a slight difference in language and in manner between the elder
and the two younger sisters.
Jane, too, had had the inestimable advantage of a sorrow; not the
natural grief at the loss of her aged father and mother, for she
had been resigned to let them go; but something far deeper.
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