The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

AN UNEXPECTED GUEST.

417

present the cause of state missions to his congregation, and
as he approved, and it was convenient for me to attend to
the matter to-morrow,. I have set my own time, and come
on without farther preliminaries. This is Mrs. ---, my
wife, who already feels acquainted with you, as she has an
uncle, with a large family, living in Boston, where you came
from, if I remember aright."
The whole proceeding was
so cool, so much a matter of
custom and precedent, that it
took my breath away, and I
meekly led the way to the guest / '.
chamber, and saw them and
their numerous bags, boxes, and
bundles bestowed within the t
cosy room, and then informed
my husband of the charming j
outlook for Sunday. Descending to the kitchen, I took an
inventory of the larder. A
family of two with no expecta-HELPING ME OUT OF A DILEMMA.
Lifting the napkin from a basket she
tion of guests, cannot readily carried, revealed a pair of roasted
cater for twice that number of chickens.
people over Sunday, in a town like Stafford, and I was beginning to wonder what I should do, when I became aware
that there was a neighborly hastening to my relief. A tap
at the door was followed by the entrance of one of my good
women friends, a long-time housekeeper, who, lifting the
napkin from a basket she carried, revealed a pair of roasted
chickens.
" I knew that horse and chaise in a moment," she said,
laughingly, "and that you were in for company over Sun