222 Reminiscences of 



aspect of Mother Dare, who evidently viewed me with 

 some curiosity and possible apprehensions. Quite 

 needless in my case, and it was not tmtil my second 

 call, on a following evening, that I ventured to intimate 

 the necessity of replenishing my apparel by the addi- 

 tion of a waistcoat — ^after an hour's conversation with 

 the mother and daughter and Edwards about the 

 needed improvements in tenement houses, and of re- 

 form in the school system, and other serious subjects 

 — and before I left I had my meastire taken for a new 

 vest by the tapering hands of rosy Jane, who held pins 

 in her mouth. A third visit was required to fetch the 

 material, and my growing fondness for the mother's 

 tea, of which I could hardly get enough, evidently 

 manufactured from the garden shrubbery, seemed to 

 disperse any suspiciousness which might have existed. 

 I ventured to express the satisfaction which might 

 be derived from a drive about the beautiful suburbs 

 of the city. Mother Dare seemed to understand who 

 should comprise the party, and expressed the difficulty 

 of getting away on a week day, but might be arranged 

 on a Sunday, when a pot of beans would answer for 

 the evening meal. It was then suggested, as we were 

 all to go, that a street car excursion to the Mount Au- 

 burn cemetery would answer our purpose and give us 

 a cheerful recreation. So we went out the following 

 Sunday afternoon to the cemetery, and I was struck 

 by the simple and cheerful, but yet independent, am- 

 bition of the pretty Jane by her remark, as we viewed 

 one of the most elaborate monuments there, that she 

 would be about willing to die if she could have over 

 her grave so beavitiful a plinth as we had before us. 

 It was very touching, and indicated the spirit of the 



