CHAPTER IV
When dinner was over Charlotte helped Aunt Hepzibah with the dishes, and then they began to exchange confidences. They talked about Aunt Grace, and Margaret, and Margaret's rich beau, and how Aunt Grace did up her quinces, and how much they paid the minister at Penfield; and then, the scene shifting to Marlin Mills, they talked about those faithful members of the Old Guard who had not yet moved or (with greater dignity) been moved away.
There were only six families left, and only seven pupils to attend the school-house under the old Marlin elms, that same schoolhouse where Nathan Hale once taught before he went away to voice his deathless regret.
"And, out o' them seven, one's a bit
62
