Author of “Maggie Miller,” “Dora Drane,” “EnglishOrphans,” “The Homestead on the Hillside,” “MeadowbrookFarm,” “Lena Rivers,” “Rosamond,” “CousinMaude,” “Tempest and Sunshine,” “Rector of St.Marks,” “Mildred,” “The Leighton Homestead,”“Miss McDonald”
The good people of Devonshire were rather given to quarreling—sometimesabout the minister’s wife, meek, gentle Mrs. Tiverton, whose manner ofhousekeeping, and style of dress, did not exactly suit them; sometimes aboutthe minister himself, good, patient Mr. Tiverton, who vainly imagined that ifhe preached three sermons a week, attended the Wednesday eveningprayer-meeting, the Thursday evening sewing society, officiated at everyfuneral, visited all the sick, and gave to every beggar who called at his door,besides superintending the Sunday school, he was earning his salary of sixhundred per year.
Sometimes, and that not rarely, the quarrel crept into the choir, and then, forone whole Sunday, it was all in vain that Mr. Tiverton read the psalm and hymn,casting troubled glances toward the vacant seats of his refractory singers.There was no one to respond, unless it were good old Mr. Hodges, who pitched sohigh that few could follow him; while Mrs. Captain Simpson—whosedaughter, the organist, had been snubbed at the last choir meeting by Mr.Hodges’ daughter, the alto singer—rolled up her eyes at her ne