Ann Smith 
Not that she was Strait-laced. She had 
no theories of Right and Wrong. Principles 
consciously formulated troubled her not at all. 
It was by a quicker insight she lived. Kindness 
and truthfulness stimulated in her an emotion— 
it hardly amounted to a sentiment—which saw 
in a flash the decent thing to say, to do, to think 
at any given moment; and she said it, did it, 
thought it, without hesitation. 
So, as I say, she was nowise strait-laced, but 
quietly happy, and amused at her own little back- 
slidings. One New Year’s Day she made a good 
resolution—to go to bed by ten o’clock every 
night. But ten o’clock found her at cribbage; 
so that by the end of January she was lamenting 
that she had not once kept her new rule. Two or 
three nights later she announced, with a mis- 
chievous smile, that she had decided to alter her 
good resolution. Henceforth she wouldn’t go 
to bed until after ten. And to that she was able 
to keep. 
Perhaps she was not singular in this respect, 
yet I feel that the memories of childhood were 
unusually near the surface in her case. Truly, 
the years had not robbed her of her innocence. 
I have seen her throw herself back in her arm-chair 
to laugh, with the mischievous gaiety of six years 
old, However that may be, one never foresaw 
what touch of other days was coming from her. 
A baby boy from a neighbouring cottage was the 
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