One of the best pews in the house, well forward in the middle aisle, and they had it all to themselves.  There was not another pew in church that morning which seemed to attract so large a share of the attention of the congregation.  Mrs. Myers and Almira were several pews behind, and on the other side of the house; and there had been no opportunity to capture her four boarders, or any of them, while they were marching in.

“Almira!  If they haven’t brought Dick with them.”

“Yes, mother; but how very well they look!  Mr. Kinzer is really quite handsome.”

That was hardly Dab’s opinion of himself, and nobody had ever taken pains to tell him so; but the four of them, standing up together, and all singing, made quite a picture.  Dick Lee was between Dab Kinzer and Frank Harley, and seemed to feel in honor bound to sing his best.  That was very well too.

If Glorianna could but have had a look at her boy that morning, there is no such thing as telling how proud she would have felt about him.  It was too bad she could not have done so, especially as Dick was most loyally thinking of her, and wishing that she could.

There was no fault to be found by Mrs. Myers, or anybody else, with the strict decorum of her boarders, and their profound attention to the service and sermon; but she felt that she had a duty to perform, and she only waited the proper time for its performance.

The last hymn had been duly sung, and the boys were drifting along with the tide in the aisle towards the door, when Dabney nudged Ford with his elbow.

“We’re nabbed, Ford.”

“No escape this time, that’s a fact.  Don’t let’s try.  She means it all for politeness.”

They would have been quite willing to have been allowed to get out and go home unnoticed; but there in the porch awaiting them were Mrs. Myers and Almira, and there was no possibility of an escape.  It would have been unkind to try in the face of so much smiling.  Besides, they did board with her; and she had her rights of property, one of which was to show them off, and introduce them.  She proceeded to exercise it at once; and it was to the credit of the three white boys that they came promptly to her assistance, and added any little matter she might happen to miss in the hurry of the moment.

“Deacon Short, this is Mr. Dabney Kinzer, of Long Island; this is Mr. Frank Harley, of Rangoon, son of Rev. Dr. Harley, our well-known missionary; this is Mr. Ford Foster, son of the eminent New-York lawyer.”

“Delighted”—­began the deacon, rapidly grasping and shaking hand after hand, with a peculiar lift of his elbow, that placed most of what might be called the “action” at the point of it; but Ford was thinking of the thing Mrs. Myers had omitted, and he promptly added,—­

“Glad to meet you, Deacon Short; and this is my friend Mr. Richard Lee, of Long Island.”

To do the good deacon justice, his grasp of Dick’s hand was every bit as cordial as any other of his grasps; and he beamed on the smiling black boy in a way that gave him back, after the manner of a reflection, a great glow of the best and broadest “beaming.”