Mrs. Peck appeared on the following day, according to promise, carrying a little black bag, containing scissors, yard-measure, and a few other implements of needlework, all perfectly new; and after a short conversation with Mrs. Phillips and a little refreshment, she sat down beside Elsie to ingratiate herself with that young lady.  Elsie thought she had never seen any one so ignorant of the work she had set about as Mrs. Mahoney appeared to be.  She confessed that she was not skilful, and it showed all the more kindness in Mrs. Phillips to give her work when she had had so little practice, and did it so badly.  She had been accustomed to go out as a nurse, she said; but she had got too old for that, and could not stand the sitting up of nights; and then she branched off into accounts of dreadful experiences in nursing, and deathbeds, and awful operations, that were enough to make Elsie’s hair stand on end.  She found fault with Mrs. Phillips’s nurse as being too much of the fine lady, and told Elsie what she considered to be a nurse’s duties, which she would like to do if she was only fit for it.  Then she threw herself on Elsie’s good nature for a little lesson in needlework, admired her quickness and taste and skill, wished she could do anything half as well, and asked her to be good enough to cut out and place her work for her, and to lend her patterns, and altogether behaved with the most insinuating affability.

Although Elsie Melville looked simple-minded, she was by no means wanting in observation, and her situation with Mrs. Phillips and her sister-in-law had taught her a wonderful amount of prudence.  She thought there was some inconsistency in Mrs. Mahoney’s fluent narratives, and something very peculiar in her relations with Mrs. Phillips, who appeared to be restless and uncomfortable whenever she was in the house.  Elsie was, however, good-natured enough to give her some instruction, for which great gratitude was expressed.  On the third day of her visits, when apparently occupied in learning how to do featherstitch for trimming baby’s pinafores, Mrs. Peck looked up from her work, and asked Elsie if she did not come from-----shire.

“That was my native county,” said Elsie.

“Do you know Cross Hall at all?” asked Mrs. Peck.

“I was brought up there,” said Elsie.

“I come from that county, too,” said Mrs. Peck.

“I did not think you had been Scotch,” said Elsie.

“I have been in these colonies for thirty-four years, and seen but few of my own country folks; but the English say they’d know me to be Scotch by my accent.”

“Well, perhaps your accent is a little like that of-----shire,
when I come to think of it; but the turn of your expressions is not
Scotch at all,” said Elsie.  “Thirty-four years is a long time, however;
I may, perhaps, get rid of some of my own Scotticisms by that time.”

“I knew Hogarth of Cross Hall, very well, when I was young,” said Mrs. Peck.  “Do you mean to say you was brought up there?”