Miranda Sawyer, who had been patiently waiting for the end of this speech, laid down her knitting and raised her eyes with a half-resigned expression that meant: Is there anything unusual in heaven or earth or the waters under the earth that this child does not want to do? Will she ever settle down to plain, comprehensible Sawyer ways, or will she to the end make these sudden and radical propositions, suggesting at every turn the irresponsible Randall ancestry? “You know well enough, Rebecca, that I don't like you to be intimate with Abner Simpson's young ones,” she said decisively. “They ain't fit company for anybody that's got Sawyer blood in their veins, if it's ever so little. I don't know, I'm sure, how you're goin' to turn out! The fish peddler seems to be your best friend, without it's Abijah Flagg that you're everlastingly talkin' to lately. I should think you'd rather read some improvin' book than to be chatterin' with Squire Bean's chore-boy!” “He isn't always going to be a chore-boy,” explained Rebecca, “and that's what we're considering. It's his career we talk about, and he hasn't got any father or mother to advise him. Besides, Clara Belle kind of belongs to the village now that she lives with Mrs. Fogg; and she was always the best behaved of all the girls, either in school or Sunday-school. Children can't help having fathers!” “Everybody says Abner is turning over a new leaf, and if so, the family'd ought to be encouraged every possible way,” said Miss Jane, entering the room with her mending basket in hand. “If Abner Simpson is turnin' over a leaf, or anythin' else in creation, it's only to see what's on the under side!” remarked Miss Miranda promptly. “Don't talk to me about new leaves! You can't change that kind of a man; he is what he is, and you can't make him no different!” “The grace of God can do consid'rable,” observed Jane piously. “I ain't sayin' but it can if it sets out, but it has to begin early and stay late on a man like Simpson.” “Now, Mirandy, Abner ain't more'n forty! I don't know what the average age for repentance is in men-folks, but when you think of what an awful sight of 'em leaves it to their deathbeds, forty seems real kind of young. Not that I've heard Abner has experienced religion, but everybody's surprised at the good way he's conductin' this fall.” “They'll be surprised the other way round when they come to miss their firewood and apples and potatoes again,” affirmed Miranda. “Clara Belle don't seem to have inherited from her father,” Jane ventured again timidly. “No wonder Mrs. Fogg sets such store by the girl. If it hadn't been for her, the baby would have been dead by now.” “Perhaps tryin' to save it was interferin' with the Lord's will,” was Miranda's retort.