With all his French education, this was a remark the Judge would have been willing to dispense with; however on the French principle of considering that as a compliment, the meaning of which is equivocal, he bowed and introduced Mr. Armstrong. Mrs. Perkins courtesied. "She'd heard," she said, "of Mr. Armstrong, and that he had the handsomest daughter, in the town of Hillsdale." "It is your turn now," whispered the Judge. "Let me see how you will acquit yourself." But Armstrong was not a man for compliments. "Faith looks as well as young ladies generally I believe," he said. Mrs. Perkins did not like to have her pretty speech received with so much indifference, so she answered, "I was, perhaps, too much in a hurry when I called Squire Armstrong's daughter, the handsomest: I forgot Anne, and she's a right to be, sence she's got her father's good looks." "Dear Mrs Perkins, you overwhelm me!" exclaimed the Judge, bowing still lower than before. "I think higher than ever of your taste." "Ah! You're poking fun at me, me now," said Mrs. Perkins, hardly knowing how to receive the acknowledgment. "But wouldn't you like to take something after your ride?" Those were not the days of temperance societies, and it would have been quite _secundum regulas_, had the gentlemen accepted the offer as intended by their hostess. The Judge looked at Armstrong, who declined, and then turning to Mrs. Perkins said, "The strawberry season is not over, I believe"-- "Oh! I can give you strawberries and cream," interrupted the hospitable Mrs. Perkins. "And would you be so kind as to give them to us in the veranda? The sun does not shine in, and it will be pleasanter in the open air." "Sartainly. Eliza Jane!" she cried, elevating her voice and speaking through an open door to one of her little daughters, with a blooming multitude of whom Providence had blessed her, "Eliza Jane, fetch two cheers into the piazza. That piazza, Judge, is one of the grandest things that ever was. The old man and me and the children, take ever so much comfort in it." "I am glad you like it. But we will spare your daughter the trouble of taking out the chairs, and carry them ourselves." "Not for the world, Judge, for I think it's best to make children useful." Accordingly Eliza Jane brought the chairs, and the mother retiring with her, soon returned with the little girl, bearing in her hands a tray containing the strawberries and cream. The Judge kissed the child, and gave her a half dollar to buy a ribbon for her bonnet. "I do declare Judge!" cried the mother, whose gratified looks contradicted the language, "you'll spoil Eliza Jane." "A child of yours cannot be spoiled, Mrs. Perkins," said the Judge, "as long as she is under your eye. With your example before her, she is sure to grow up a good and useful woman." "Well, I try to do my duty by her," said Mrs. Perkins, "and I don't mean it shall be any fault of mine, if she ain't."