My aunt said it seemed as
though night would never come, when I was to drive over to take her
home, for there was not, she said, a minute's peace in the house during
the whole afternoon, and glad enough was she to return at night to her
own quiet home. It was a severe trial to one of my aunt's orderly
habits, to be daily subjected to the visits of the noisy mischievous
children of her cousin, and although she bore it with more patience than
might have been expected, it was a serious annoyance. More than all, she
dreaded the eldest son Ephraim. From the first there had existed a kind
of feud between them. The boy was quick to notice the love of order so
observable in my aunt, and took a malicious pleasure in studying up ways
and means to annoy her in this respect. Articles of daily use were
misplaced, and many an accident occurred in the household which could be
traced in an indirect way to Ephraim; but the fellow was shrewd as well
as mischievous, and took good care that not a scrap of direct evidence
could be brought against him.
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