But Mrs. Peters smilingly accorded it. She herself had entered upon a long visit; whenever she made a motion to return, the family so vehemently demurred that she relented, only stipulating that when she should depart aunt Jemima should accompany her. She took a sad pleasure in the talk of the blind artillery-man, her own son, who was killed in battle, having been in the same command. Abner remembered him after a time, and told her many things of his army life which she had not before known. She had a sort of maternal tenderness for his comrade, and loved to see how Rosamond had blossomed in the waste places of his life. “I don’t think ’twould be right ter take her away from Ab,” she said, when the visit was at last at an end. And so only the two old women went to Persimmon Cove; together they came back after a time. And thus for years, the old cronies, cherishing so strong a bond of friendship, have vibrated on visits to and fro. But whoever comes or goes Rosamond has never yet left the hearthstone made brighter by her presence. And when she and the blind artillery-man walk hand in hand down the shady road to Keedon Bluffs, she always cries out gleefully when she sees the great cannon-ball arrested midway on the ledge, and he tells her again how it must have burst forth from the muzzle of the gun far away, and, sounding its shrill battle cry, whirled through the air, describing a great arc against the sky, dropping at last, spent and futile, on the ledge there above the river. “Sometimes,” he says, “sometimes, Rosamondy, I feels ez ef I’d like ter lay my hand on that ball ef I could git nigh it—’minds me so o’ the war times; ’twould bring ’em nigher; they seems a-slippin’ away now.” “I hate that cannon-ball; it kem so nigh a-killin’ somebody,” says Rosamondy, “an’ I hate war times. An’ I don’t want folks ter be hurted no mo’.” And in the deep peace of the silent mountain fastnesses and the sheltered depths of the Cove, they leave the old ball, spent and mute and harmless, lying on the ledges of Keedon Bluffs, above the reddening river, and take their way homeward through the sunset glow. Standard and Popular Library Books SELECTED FROM THE CATALOGUE OF HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. =A Club of One.= An Anonymous Volume, $1.25. =Brooks Adams.= The Emancipation of Massachusetts, crown 8vo, $1.50. =John Adams and Abigail Adams.= Familiar Letters of, during the Revolution, 12mo, $2.00. =Oscar Fay Adams.= Handbook of English Authors, 16mo, 75 cents; Handbook of American Authors, 16mo, 75 cents. =Louis Agassiz.= Methods of Study in Natural History, Illustrated, 12mo, $1.50; Geological Sketches, Series I. and II., 12mo, each, $1.50; A Journey in Brazil, Illustrated, 12mo, $2.50; Life and Letters, edited by his wife, 2 vols. 12mo, $4.00; Life and Works, 6 vols. $10.00. =Anne A. Agge and Mary M. Brooks.= Marblehead Sketches. 4to, $3.00. =Elizabeth Akers.= The Silver Bridge and other Poems, 16mo, $1.25.