Page:The Land Claim.pdf/41

 a little celebration every summer. And this is our wedding-day!" said the constable's wife, smiling dreamily as she forgot to take the chair she had placed for herself.

"And are you going to have a celebration to-day?" asked Alicia. "I wish I were strong enough to do something for you."

"If you only look pretty, and have a good appetite, that's all the help I want. We're not going to do as we used to-have a large company—'cause things are changed with us. Our only son is dead, and our only daughter is married away off from us; besides, when we lost all our property by fire and had bad luck every way, we give up our old ways partly. I am a-going to have a nice little dinner by ourselves, and Silas has invited some friends of his, I believe, to help us eat it. So don't get too tired, now for then you won't enjoy it; and I want you to be as brisk as you can. Dear me! I believe I smell my cake a-burning."

"I hope your cake is not burned," said Alicia, looking up as the good woman returned to the parlor with her hands full -a package in one-a bouquet of flowers in the other. " No indeed, it has got a nice bake. But look at these presents! One would think it was the anniversary of your wedding instead of mine. Mr. Mauvais has sent you this bottle-it is labeled French Cordial-and Mr. Allen has sent you the flowers. There was a long rigmarole of compliments with the bottle; but'the flowers were left by a boy who only said that Mr. Allen sent them to Miss Newcome." Alicia blushed a little with the pleased excitement a young girl always feels at the first marked attentions she receives from gentlemen. She read the French label first, and admired the rich golden color of the wine; but the flowers she kept for some time in her hands, smelling at them, and in doing so, softly pressing them to her lips and cheeks. Mrs. Wyman offered to put them in water for her, when she reluctantly parted with them, only keeping a bunch of the crimson buds of the prairie-rose to fasten in the bosom of her white wrapper. " I'll put these by your plate at dinner," said Mrs. Wyman, smiling at the eager eyes which followed the flowers; " they will make the table look so nice. And the coTdialtoo, to give you an appetite." " Dear Mrs. Wyman," began Alicia, nervously, " I know my father would not like to have me accept presents from Mr. Mauvais, P'lease tell me what to do about it." sending a bottle of cordial out of his cellar to a sick child like you, dear. I know what some ill-disposed people might say about him; but there is a great many allowances to be made for a man that has spent his life among the Indians; and Mauvais is a generous-hearted man to his friends. He's been very kind to my husband."
 * ' Why, your father doesn't think!-" here the good woman interrupted herself. There can be no harm in even Mr. Mauvais,