silk gown. One can imagine what answer he made, how he received his present, and what a blissful state of things ensued. John came home early, Meg gadded no more; and that greatcoat was put on in the morning by a very happy husband, and taken off at night by a most devoted little wife. So the year rolled round, and at midsummer there came to Meg a new experience—the deepest and tenderest of a woman’s life.
Laurie came sneaking into the kitchen of the Dovecote, one Saturday, with an excited face, and was received with the clash of cymbals; for Hannah clapped her hands with a saucepan in one and the cover in the other.
“How’s the little mamma? Where is everybody? Why didn’t you tell me before I came home?” began Laurie, in a loud whisper.
“Happy as a queen, the dear! Every soul of ’em is upstairs a worshipin’; we didn’t want no hurrycanes round. Now you go into the parlor, and I’ll