Page:A New England Tale.djvu/68

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A NEW-ENGLAND TALE.
57

"I do, Ma'am, feel grateful, that I have a shelter over my head; what more I have to be grateful for, time must determine."

There was a dignity in Jane's manner, that, with the spirit of the reply, taught Mrs. Wilson, that she had, in her niece, a very different subject to deal with from her own wilful and trickish children. Well, Miss Jane, I shall expect no haughty airs in my house, and you will please now to go and tell the girls to be ready to go with me to the afternoon conference, and prepare yourself to go also. One more thing I have to say to you, you must never look to me for any clothing; that cunning Mary has packed away enough to last you fifty years. With all her methodism, I will trust her to feather your nest, and her own too."

Alas! thought Jane, as she went to execute her aunt's commission, what good does it do my poor aunt to go to conference? Perhaps this question would not have occurred to many girls of thirteen, but Jane had been accustomed to scan the motives of her conduct, and to watch for the fruit. The aid extended to our helpless orphan by her pharisaical aunt, reminds us of the "right of asylum" afforded, by the ancients to the offenders who were allowed to take shelter in the temples of their gods, and allowed to perish there.

She found the girls very much indisposed to the afternoon meeting. Martha said, she "would not go to hear Deacon Barton's everlasting prayers; she had heard so many of them, she knew them all by heart."