Chap.

CONTENTS.

1. Going to House-keeping

2. A Glimpse at Family Government

3. A Family Dinner.

4. The Reverse of the Picture

5. A Dedication Service

6. Sunday at Mr. Barclay's

7. A True Story

8. A Dark Day.

9. A Home for the Homeless

10. A Peep into the Hive

11. Going home to Greenbrook

12. Cross-Purposes

13. Family Letters

14. The Conclusion

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IN a picturesque district of New England, it matters not in which of the Eastern States, for in them all there is such unity of character and similarity of condition, that what is true of one may be probable of all,-in one of them there is a sequestered village called Greenbrook. The place derives its name from a stream of water which bears this descriptive appellation,

"As if the bright fringe of herbs on its brink,
Had given their stain to the wave they drink;
And they, whose meadows it murmurs through,
Have named the stream from its own fair hue."

There is one particularly beautiful spot, where this little river, or rather brook (for it is not wider than the Tiber at Washington,) winds

through a lovely meadow, and then stretches round a rocky peninsula, curving in and out, and lingering as if it had a human heart and loved that which it enriched. On a gentle slope, rising from the meadow and catching the first rays of the morning sun, stood an old-fashioned parsonage, about half a mile from the village, and at right angles with it, so that its road and shaded side-walks, and the goings-out and comings-in of his flock, could be overlooked by the good pastor. Parson Draper's were not the days of agricultural and horticultural societies, and just as he received the place, he was content to hold and leave it. He cut the hay from the meadow, and pastured a few sheep in the beautiful wood of maples, oaks, and beeches, that sheltered him from the northwest wind, where, if they did not find the sweetest pasture in the world, they looked prettily, cropping their scanty food from the rocky knolls, or grouped together in the shaded dells.

The good man, according to his views of them, performed his duties faithfully. He read diligently large books of divinity, preached two sermons (never an old one) every Sabbath, was punctual at weddings and funerals, and abstracted no time from these sacerdotal offices to improve his rugged garden, or till his little farm. He had but two children, the one a worthless son, and the other a girl, a most dutiful and gentle creature, who married a merchant, lived prosperously in a city for two or three years, and then returned a widow, penniless, and with an only son, to her father's house. She bore her reverses meekly, and direct