"Who would have thought," said the good dame, as she dusted a chair and offered it to Jane, "of your coming all this way to see whether we were above ground yet?"
"Ah," said John, "there are some in this world, a precious few, who remember those that every body else forgets."
"I could not forget you, my good friends," replied Jane, "though John does not come any more to put me in mind of you."
"Why, Miss Jane," said John, "I grow old, and I have been but twice to the village since that mournful night you was here, and then I was in such a worrying matter that I did not think even of you."
"What have you had to disturb you?" inquired Jane. "I hoped from finding you in this nice new house that all had gone well since I saw you."
"Ah," replied John, "I have been greatly favoured; but the storm came before the calm. Miss Jane, did you never hear of my law-suit? the whole town was alive with it."
Jane assured John that she had never heard a word of it; that she had a little school to take care of; and that she saw very few persons, and heard little village news, even when it was so important as his law-suit.
"Then, Miss Jane," said John, "if you have time and patience to hear an old man's story, I will tell you mine.—It is fifty years since my old woman and I settled down in these woods. Like all our fellow-creatures, we have had our portion
