Aikenside by Mary J. Holmes Author of “Maggie Miller,” “Dora Drane,” “English Orphans,” “The Homestead on the Hillside,” “Meadowbrook Farm,” “Lena Rivers,” “Rosamond,” “Cousin Maude,” “Tempest and Sunshine,” “Rector of St. Marks,” “Mildred,” “The Leighton Homestead,” “Miss McDonald” Contents CHAPTER I. THE EXAMINING COMMITTEE. CHAPTER II. MADELINE CLYDE. CHAPTER III. THE EXAMINATION. CHAPTER IV. GRANDPA MARKHAM. CHAPTER V. THE RESULT. CHAPTER VI. CONVALESCENCE. CHAPTER VII. THE DRIVE. CHAPTER VIII. SHADOWINGS OF WHAT WAS TO BE. CHAPTER IX. THE DECISION. CHAPTER X. AT AIKENSIDE. CHAPTER XI. GUY AT HOME. CHAPTER XII. A GENEROUS LETTER. CHAPTER XIII. UNCLE JOSEPH. CHAPTER XIV. MADDY AND LUCY. CHAPTER XV. THE HOLIDAYS. CHAPTER XVI. THE DOCTOR AND MADDY. CHAPTER XVII. WOMANHOOD. CHAPTER XVIII. THE BURDEN. CHAPTER XIX. LIFE AT THE COTTAGE. CHAPTER XX. THE BURDEN GROWS HEAVIER. CHAPTER XXI. THE INTERVAL BEFORE THE MARRIAGE. CHAPTER XXII. BEFORE THE BRIDAL. CHAPTER XXIII. LUCY. CHAPTER XXIV. FINALE. CHAPTER I. THE EXAMINING COMMITTEE. The good people of Devonshire were rather given to quarreling—sometimes about the minister’s wife, meek, gentle Mrs. Tiverton, whose manner of housekeeping, and style of dress, did not exactly suit them; sometimes about the minister himself, good, patient Mr. Tiverton, who vainly imagined that if he preached three sermons a week, attended the Wednesday evening prayer-meeting, the Thursday evening sewing society, officiated at every funeral, visited all the sick, and gave to every beggar who called at his door, besides superintending the Sunday school, he was earning his salary of six hundred per year. Sometimes, and that not rarely, the quarrel crept into the choir, and then, for one whole Sunday, it was all in vain that Mr. Tiverton read the psalm and hymn, casting troubled glances toward the vacant seats of his refractory singers. There was no one to respond, unless it were good old Mr. Hodges, who pitched so high that few could follow him; while Mrs. Captain Simpson—whose daughter, the organist, had been snubbed at the last choir meeting by Mr. Hodges’ daughter, the alto singer—rolled up her eyes at her next neighbor, or fanned herself furiously in token of her disgust.