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 word; so much so that Ruth had learned to expect it, and would try to kiss her mother before it was spoken.

"But don't thee know, mother, I am to be so busy there converting my cousins? Father says that I may be the instrument of a great change among my people; but really, has thee ever discovered any converting tendencies in me? Father's words are not always in accord, for he has charged me with perverting others by my example. Oh, dear! I do wonder what England is like." And Ruth would go on steadily with her needlework, and if she looked up from it, her eyes would wander but in the one direction.

"What does thee think, mother," Ruth asked one day, "of my plan of having John make me two small oaken chests to hold all my worldly possessions? I want them made of oak from the creek's north shore, and he can use the brasses that are on the old chest in the garret that got so badly broken on shipboard when we came over."

"The chest, dear, is not so badly broken but it can be mended, so father says, and one,