The brawls and disturbances occasioned by the hostility of these two high-spirited maidens—for Vi’let too had forsworn matrimony—rendered it the first object of Mr. Fayerweather’s wishes to remove the Boyntons; and he endeavored to prevail upon them to relinquish their claim for a reasonable compensation; but for many years in vain, their residence in his neighborhood was much too profitable and convenient for them to be easily induced to change it. George Fayerweather, the elder of Mr. Fayerweather’s two sons, being the hero of this legend, it may be as well to give some account of his boyhood, especially of those events and associations that had some share in the formation of his character. Though in strength and frame a young giant, he had delicate, handsome features, and a complexion which seemed to defy the effect of sun or wind, rosy cheeks, and long, curling, golden hair. He resembled his mother very much; and madam could not always avoid betraying her fond pride in this living image of herself, as she smoothed his hair, and turning each golden lock over her finger, formed it into ringlets round his blooming face and ivory throat, after her daily operations of washing and dressing him. These offices she took upon herself until he was eleven years old, and there is no knowing how much longer she might have chosen to perform them, if his father had not interfered—“Finding,” as he said, “the boy was in danger of becoming a conceited, effeminate coxcomb—which no son of his should be.” One morning Mr. Fayerweather was reading in a small apartment, which opened out of the sitting-room, formerly used by him as a counting-room, and still retaining the name, though it might have been dignified with the title of library, being lined with book-shelves well filled. The door was half open, and hearing some one enter the sitting-room, he looked up and saw his son, who had just undergone the above-mentioned dressing operations under his mother’s hands. The boy, not perceiving his father, went up to the large looking-glass which hung over the marble slab, where he stood apparently admiring himself, while he took a handful of sugar-plums from his pocket, and putting them into his mouth, ate as he gazed.