“Reuben,” said Grandma Dayton to her son, one evening
after she had listened to the reading of a political
article for which she did not care one fig, “Reuben, does
thee suppose Dr. Benton makes a charge every time he
calls?”

“I don't know,” said Mr. Dayton; “what made you
ask that question?”

“Because,” answered grandma,—and her knitting needles
rattled loud enough to be heard in the next room—
“because, I think he calls mighty often, considering that

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Lizzie neither gets better nor worse; and I think, too,
that he and Berintha have a good many private talks!”

The paper dropped from Mr. Dayton's hand, and “what
can you mean?” dropped from his lips.

“Why,” resumed grandma, “every time he comes, he
manages to see Berintha alone; and hain't thee noticed
that she has colored her hair lately, and left off caps?”

“Yes; and she looks fifteen years younger for it; but
what of that?”

Grandma, whose remarks had all been preparatory to
the mighty secret she was about to divulge, coughed,
and then informed her son that Berintha was going to be
married, and wished to have the wedding there.

“Berintha and the doctor! Good!” exclaimed Mr.
Dayton. “To be sure, I'll give her a wedding, and a
wedding dress, too.”

Here grandma left the room, and after reporting her
success to Berintha, she sought her grand-daughters, and
communicated to them the expected event. When Lucy
learned of her cousin's intended marriage, she was nearly
as much surprised and provoked as she had been when
first she heard of Ada's.

Turning to Lizzie, she said, “It's too bad! for of
course we shall have to give up all hopes of the doctor's
money.”

“And perhaps thee'll be the only old maid in the family,
after all,” suggested grandma, who knew Lucy's weak
point, and sometimes loved to touch it.

“And if I am,” retorted Lucy, angrily, “I hope I
shall have sense enough to mind my own business, and
not interfere with that of my grandchildren!”

Grandma made no answer, but secretly she felt some conscientious
scruples with regard to Lucy's grandchildren!
As for Berintha, she seemed entirely changed, and flitted

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about the house in a manner which caused Lucy to call her
“an old fool, trying to ape sixteen.” With a change of feelings,
her personal appearance also changed, and when she
one day returned from the dentist's with an entire set of
new teeth, and came down to tea in a dark, fashionably
made merino, the metamorphose was complete, and grandma
declared that she looked better than she ever had before
in her life. The doctor, too, was improved, and though
he did not color his hair, he ordered six new shirts, a
new coat, a new horse, and a pair of gold spectacles!

After a due lapse of time, the appointed day came, and
with it, at an early hour, came Cousin John and Elizabeth
Betsey, bringing with them the few herbs which Berintha,
at the time of her removal, had overlooked.
These Bridget demurely proposed should be given to
Miss Lucy, “who of late was much given to drinking
catnip.” Perfectly indignant, Lucy threw the herbs, bag
and all, into the fire, thereby filling the house with an
odor which made the asthmatic old doctor wheeze and
blow wonderfully, during the evening.

A few of the villagers were invited, and when all was
ready, Mr. Dayton brought down in his arms his white-faced
Lizzie, who imperceptibly had grown paler and
weaker every day, while those who looked at her as she
reclined upon the sofa, sighed, and thought of a different
occasion when they probably would assemble there. For
once Lucy was very amiable, and with the utmost politeness
and good nature, waited upon the guests. There was a
softened light in her eye, and a heightened bloom on her
cheek, occasioned by a story which Berintha, two hours
before, had told her, of a heart all crushed in its youth,
and aching on through long years of loneliness, but which
was about to be made happy by a union with the only object
it had ever loved! Do you start and wonder?

p598-235 [figure description] Page 230.[end figure description]

Have you not guessed that Dr. Benton, who, that night,
for the second time breathed the marriage vow, was the
same who, years before, won the girlish love of Berintha
Dayton, and then turned from her to the more beautiful
Amy Holbrook, finding, too late, that all is not gold that
glitters? It is even so, and could you have seen how
tightly he clasped the hand of his new wife, and how
fondly his eye rested upon her, you would have said that,
however long his affections might have wandered, they
had at last returned to her, his first, best love.