But I am wandering from my subject, which was, I believe, the Thanksgiving succeeding Jamie’s death and my own recovery from sickness. For this occasion great preparations were made, it being confidently expected that my father’s brother, who lived in Boston, would be with us, together with his wife, a lady whose reputation for sociability and suavity of manners was, with us, rather below par. She was my uncle’s second wife, and rumor said that neither himself nor his home were as comfortable as they once had been. From the same reliable source, too, we learned that she breakfasted in her own room at ten, dined at three, made or received calls until six, went to parties, soirées, or the theatre in the evening, and seldom got to bed until two o’clock in the morning; a mode of living which was pronounced little better than heathenish by grandma, who had long been anxious for an opportunity of “giving Charlotte Ann a piece of her mind.” Mother, who was more discreet, very wisely advised her not to interfere with the arrangements of her daughter-in-law. “It would do no good,” she said, “and might possibly make matters worse.” Unlike most old people, grandma was not very much set in her own way, and to mother’s suggestion, she replied that “Mebby she shouldn’t say anything—’twould depend on how many airs Charlotte put on.” To me the expected visit was a sore trial; for, notwithstanding my cheeks and neck were rounder and fuller than they had ever been, my head, with its young crop of short, stiff hair, was a terrible annoyance, and more than once I had cried as I saw in fancy the derisive smile with which my dreaded Aunt Charlotte was sure to greet me. At last sister Anna, who possessed a great deal of taste in such matters, and who ought to have been a milliner, contrived for the “picked chicken,” as she called me, a black lace cap, which fitted me so well, and was so vastly becoming that I lost all my fears, and child-like, began to count the days which must elapse before I could wear it.