Everything at Wishing-Brae was of ample size--great rooms, lofty
ceilings, big fire-places, broad windows.
"I missed the sideboard, the splendid old mahogany piece with its deep
winy lustre, and the curious carved work. Mother must have grieved to
part with it. Surely uncle and aunt couldn't have known of these
straits. Well, I'm at home now, and they need somebody to manage for
them. Uncle always said I had a business head. God helping me, I'll pull
my people out of the slough of despond."
The young girl went into the parlor, where the amber light from the
west was beginning to fall upon the old Wainwright portraits, the
candelabra with their prisms pendent, and the faded cushions and rugs.
Playing softly, as she had said, singing sweetly "Abide with me" and
"Sun of my soul," the mother was soothed into a peaceful little
half-hour of sleep, in which she dreamed that God had sent her an angel
guest, whose name was Grace.
CHAPTER IV.
TWO LITTLE SCHOOLMARMS.
"And so you are your papa's good fairy? How happy you must be! How
proud!" Amy's eyes shone as she talked to Grace, and smoothed down a
fold of the pretty white alpaca gown which set off her friend's dainty
beauty. The girls were in my mother's room at the Manse, and Mrs.
Raeburn had left them together to talk over plans, while she went to the
parlor to entertain a visitor who was engaged in getting up an autumn
_fete_ for a charitable purpose.
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