short sentences of small talk, and were punctual to our time.

I imagine that a few of the gentlefolks of Cranford were poor, and had some difficulty in making both ends meet; but they were like the Spartans, and concealed their smart under a smiling face. We none of us spoke of money, because that subject savored of commerce and trade, and though some might be poor, we were all aristocratic. The Cranfordians had that kindly fellow-feeling which made them overlook all deficiencies in success when some among them tried to conceal their poverty.

When Mrs. Forrester, for instance, gave a party in her baby-house of a dwelling, and the little maiden disturbed the ladies on the sofa by a request that she might get the tea-tray out from underneath, every one took this novel proceeding as the most natural thing in the world. It was as if we all believed that our hostess had a regular servants' hall, second table, with housekeeper and steward, instead of one little maiden, whose short ruddy arms could never have been strong enough to carry the tray upstairs if she had not been assisted in private by her mistress, who now sat in state, pretending not to know what cakes were sent up, though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes.

There were one or two consequences arising

from this general but unacknowledged poverty, and this very much acknowledged gentility, which were not amiss, and which might be introduced into many circles of society to their great improvement. For instance, the inhabitants of Cranford kept early hours, and clattered home, under the guidance of a lantern, about nine o'clock at night; and the whole town was abed and asleep by half-past ten.

Moreover, it was considered "vulgar" (a tremendous word in Cranford) to give anything expensive, in the way of eatables or drinkables, at the evening entertainments. Wafer bread-and-butter and sponge biscuits were all that the Honorable Mrs. Jamieson gave; and she was sister-in-law to the late Earl of Glenmire, although she did practise such elegant "economy."

I never shall forget the dismay felt when a certain Captain Brown came to live at Cranford, and openly spoke about his being poor- not in a whisper to an intimate friend, the doors and windows being previously closed, but in the public street! in a loud military voice! alleging his poverty as a reason for not taking a particular house.

The ladies of Cranford were already moaning over the invasion of their territories by a gentleman. He was a half-pay captain, and had obtained some situation on a neighboring railroad, which had been vehemently petitioned against by the little town; and if, in addition to his masculine gender, and his

connection with the obnoxious railroad, he was so brazen as to talk of being poor,-why, then, indeed, he must be sent to Coventry.

Poverty" was a word not to be mentioned to ears polite. We had tacitly agreed to ignore that any with whom we associated on terms of visiting equality could ever be prevented by poverty from doing anything that they wished. If we walked to or from a party, it was because the night was so fine, or the air so refreshing, not because sedanchairs were expensive. If we wore prints instead of summer silks, it was because we preferred a washing material; and so on, till we blinded ourselves to the vulgar fact that we were, all of us, people of very moderate means. Of course, then, we did not know what to make of a man who could speak of poverty as if it was not a disgrace.

Yet, somehow, Captain Brown made himself respected in Cranford, and was called upon, in spite of all resolutions to the contrary. I was surprised to hear his opinions quoted as authority at a visit which I paid to Cranford about a year after he had settled in the town. My own friends had been among the bitterest opponents of any proposal to visit the captain and his daughters; and now he was even admitted in the tabooed hours before twelve. True, it was to discover the cause of a smoking chimney, before the fire was lighted; but still Captain Brown walked upstairs, nothing daunted,

spoke in a voice too large for the room, and joked quite in the way of a tame man about the house.

He had been blind to all the small slights, and omissions of trivial ceremonies, with which he had been received. He had been friendly, though the Cranford ladies had been cool; and with manly frankness had overpowered all the shrinking which met him as a man who was not ashamed to be poor. And at last his excellent masculine common sense had gained him an extraordinary place as authority among the Cranford ladies. He himself went on in his course, as unaware of his popularity as he had been of the reverse; and I am sure he was startled one day when he found his advice so highly esteemed as to cause some counsel which he had given in jest to be taken in sober, serious

earnest.

It was on this subject: An old lady had an Alderney cow, which she looked upon as a daughter. You could not pay the short quarter-of-an-hour call without being told of the wonderful milk or wonderful intelligence of this animal. The whole town knew and kindly regarded Miss Betty Barker's Alderney; therefore great was the sympathy and regret when, in an unguarded moment, the poor cow tumbled into a lime pit. She moaned so loudly that she was soon heard and rescued; but the poor beast had lost most of her hair, and came out looking naked, cold, and miserable, in a bare skin.

Everybody pitied the animal, though a few could not restrain their smiles at her droll appearance. Miss Betty Barker absolutely cried with sorrow and dismay; and it was said she thought of trying a bath of oil. This remedy, perhaps, was recommended by some one of the number whose advice she asked; but the proposal, if ever it was made, was knocked on the head by Captain Brown's decided "Get her a flannel waistcoat, ma'am, if you wish to keep her alive. But my advice is, kill the poor creature at once."

Miss Betty Barker dried her eyes, and thanked the captain heartily. She set to work, and by-andby all the town turned out to see the Alderney meekly going to her pasture, clad in dark gray flannel. I have watched her myself many a time.

Am'a zons, in Greek legend a race of | Manx, relating to the Isle of Man, in warlike women who were supposed

to have dwelt on the coast of the Black Sea. They were represented as forming a state from which men were excluded.

dic ta to'ri al, overbearing. ec cen tric'i ty, oddity.

re tal i a'tion, a paying back in kind. co'gent, compelling assent; not easily denied.

gig'ot, the leg o' mutton sleeve.

the Irish Sea. The Manx people have many quaint customs. Tin'wald Mount, in the Isle of Man, between Peel and Castletown. Spar'tans, an ancient people of Greece

whose boasted national virtue was indifference to suffering.

sent to Cov'en try, to send a man to Coventry is to take no notice of him whatever.

ta booed', forbidden.

MRS. ELIZABETH C. GASKELL (1810-1865) was an English novelist. She was greatly interested in the mill operatives in Manchester, England, and rendered notable service in relieving their poverty. "Cranford is her most successful book.