before her mistress.

"What's happened?" she yelled breathlessly, after a few seconds of the
direst kind of silence had loaded the atmosphere while the letter was
being carefully read.

Then:

"Happened!--" said Aunt Mary, transfixing the terrible typewritten
communication with a yet more terrible look of determination.
"Happened!--Well, jus' what I expected 's happened an' jus' what nobody
expects 'll happen now. Lucinda, you run like you was paid for it and tell
Joshua not to unharness. Don't stop to open your mouth. You'll need your
breath before you get to the barn. Scurry!"

Lucinda scurried. She splashed and spattered down through the lane that
led to Joshua's kingdom with a vigor that was commendable in one of her
age.

"She says 'don't unharness,'" she panted, bouncing in through the doorway
just as Joshua was slowly and carefully folding the lap-robe in the crease
to which it had become habituated.

Joshua continued to fold.

"Then I won't unharness," he said calmly. He hung the robe over the line
that was stretched to hang robes over and Lucinda gasped for wind with
which to inflate further conversation.

"She says what nobody expects is goin' to happen," she panted as soon as
she could.

"What nobody expects is always happenin' where he's concerned," said
Joshua.

"I s'pose he's in some new row," said Lucinda.

"I'm sure he is," said Joshua, "an' if you don't go back to her pretty
quick you won't be no better off."

Lucinda turned away and returned to the house. She found Aunt Mary still
staring at the letters with the same concentrated fury as before.

"Well, is Joshua a'comin' to the door?" she asked when she saw her maid
before her.

"You didn't say for him to come to the door," Lucinda howled, "you said
for him to stay harnessed."

Aunt Mary appeared on the verge of ignition.

"Lucinda," she said, "every week I live under the same roof with you your
brains strike me 's some shrunk from the week before. What in Heaven's
name should I want Joshua to stay harnessed in the barn for? I want him to
go for Mr. Stebbins an' I want him to understand 't if Mr. Stebbins can't
come he's got to come just the same's if he could anyhow. I may seem quiet
to you, Lucinda, but if I do, it only shows all over again how little you
know. This is a awful day an' if you knew how awful you'd be half way back
to the barn right now. I ain't triflin'--I'm meanin' every word. Every
syllable. Every letter."

L