The time so long and eagerly waited for had come, and Rebecca was a student at Wareham. Persons who had enjoyed the social bewilderments and advantages of foreign courts, or had mingled freely in the intellectual circles of great universities, might not have looked upon Wareham as an extraordinary experience; but it was as much…

“That niece of yours is the most remarkable girl I have seen in years,” said Mr. Burch when the door closed. “She seems to be turnin’ out smart enough lately, but she’s consid’able heedless,” answered Miranda, “an’ most too lively.” “We must remember that it is deficient, not excessive vitality, that makes the greatest trouble…

“It was a very small meeting, aunt Miranda,” began Rebecca, “and the missionary and his wife are lovely people, and they are coming here to stay all night and tomorrow with you. I hope you won’t mind.” “Coming here!” exclaimed Miranda, letting her knitting fall in her lap, and taking her spectacles off, as she…

There was another milestone; it was more than that, it was an “event;” an event that made a deep impression in several quarters and left a wake of smaller events in its train. This was the coming to Riverboro of the Reverend Amos Burch and wife, returned missionaries from Syria. The Aid Society had called…

When Rebecca looked back upon the year or two that followed the Simpsons’ Thanksgiving party, she could see only certain milestones rising in the quiet pathway of the months. The first milestone was Christmas Day. It was a fresh, crystal morning, with icicles hanging like dazzling pendants from the trees and a glaze of pale…

The days flew by; as summer had melted into autumn so autumn had given place to winter. Life in the brick house had gone on more placidly of late, for Rebecca was honestly trying to be more careful in the performance of her tasks and duties as well as more quiet in her plays, and…

There had been company at the brick house to the bountiful Thanksgiving dinner which had been provided at one o’clock, the Burnham sisters, who lived between North Riverboro and Shaker Village, and who for more than a quarter of a century had come to pass the holiday with the Sawyers every year. Rebecca sat silent…

The days flew by; as summer had melted into autumn so autumn had given place to winter. Life in the brick house had gone on more placidly of late, for Rebecca was honestly trying to be more careful in the performance of her tasks and duties as well as more quiet in her plays, and…

A single hour’s experience of the vicissitudes incident to a business career clouded the children’s spirits just the least bit. They did not accompany each other to the doors of their chosen victims, feeling sure that together they could not approach the subject seriously; but they parted at the gate of each house, the one…

Just before Thanksgiving the affairs of the Simpsons reached what might have been called a crisis, even in their family, which had been born and reared in a state of adventurous poverty and perilous uncertainty. Riverboro was doing its best to return the entire tribe of Simpsons to the land of its fathers, so to…