Tom was wild and full of frolic:  if there is a graver word than gravity, it should be used to describe Uncle Pennyman’s demeanor.  Tom was quick and restless by nature, but his good sense and determination to make a niche for himself in life, and fill it respectably, had toned down his exuberant spirits into active energy; while Uncle Penny man’s naturally slow tendencies had become aggravated by the ponderous character of his pursuits and tastes:  all hurry was obnoxious to him, and he firmly believed that haste was another name for sin.  Yet the solemn, slow old man loved the busy, merry young one, and neither saw any fault or failing in the other.

There was no earthly relationship between Thomas Gray Pennyman and me, and yet I was always spoken of as his sister by my dear, worrying old uncle.  Tom did not seem to like it, and I knew I did not.

People often said to me, “What a splendid brother you have, Miss Pennyman but what a pity that all these handsome brothers have to be given up to stronger ties!”

How utterly silly!  I never had any patience with such nonsense.

There was not much comfort in talking to Bessie about him.  I’m sure I do not know why, but I suppose she saw that I avoided the subject; so I was really quite surprised when she said to me, laughing and looking a little mischievous—­

“Mr. Tom is to join us by and by, your uncle says.  I hope we may be able to make it pleasant for him.  I believe he likes Mrs. Tanner:  he used to like her buns when he was a boy, and I hope he has not forgotten the fancy.”

Tom coming to visit the Haines!  Such a thing had never happened before, and must mean something now.  I began to feel quite uneasy, though I really could not have explained why.

We never had much of my uncle’s or Mr. Haines’ society except in the evening:  they spent the day going about together and worrying texts of Scripture with other good old men, before whom Mr. Haines liked to show off uncle’s Bible knowledge.  They took some pious excursions in company, and had a solemnly festive time, I have no doubt, for they always came in looking perfectly satisfied with the result of their day.

It generally took some time to hear the dream and find its proper interpretation.  While it was pending the expounder generally gave out his puzzling verses, and then both pondered a good while before they arrived at their conclusions and made them known.

Both the dream and the text must have been of an unusually difficult nature this time, for a whole week went by without either transpiring; and although Bessie and I watched for some allusions to them in our morning and evening family worship, at which the two good men officiated alternately, yet not a hint could we gain until one night at the end of the week it seemed from Uncle Pennyman’s prayer that the matter in some wise referred to Bessie, since Divine guidance was sought under many rhetorical forms for the welfare, future and temporal, of “the young handmaiden, the daughter of thy servant, who would fain know thy will concerning her.”