I like the cup?"

"Exactly, Miss Day."

"Thank you, Mr. Dewy, for I like the cup decidedly. Stop a minute; there
are no spoons now!" She dived into the hamper again, and at the end of
two or three minutes looked up and said, "I suppose you don't mind if I
can't find a spoon?"

"Not at all," said the agreeable Richard.

"The fact is, the spoons have slipped down somewhere; right under the
other things. O yes, here's one, and only one. You would rather have
one than not, I suppose, Mr. Dewy?"

"Rather not. I never did care much about spoons."

"Then I'll have it. I do care about them. You must stir up your tea
with a knife. Would you mind lifting the kettle off, that it may not
boil dry?"

Dick leapt to the fireplace, and earnestly removed the kettle.

"There! you did it so wildly that you have made your hand black. We
always use kettle-holders; didn't you learn housewifery as far as that,
Mr. Dewy? Well, never mind the soot on your hand. Come here. I am
going to rinse mine, too."

They went to a basin she had placed in the back room. "This is the only
basin I have," she said. "Turn up your sleeves, and by that time my
hands will be washed, and you can come."

Her hands were in the water now. "O, how vexing!" she exclaimed.
"There's not a drop of water left for you, unless you draw it, and the
well is I don't know how many furlongs deep; all that was in the pitcher
I used for the kettle and this basin. Do you mind dipping the tips of
your fingers in the same?"

"Not at all. And to save time I won't wait till you have done, if you
have no objection?"

Thereupon he plunged in his hands, and they paddled together. It being
the first time in his life that he had touched female fingers under
water, Dick duly registered the sensation as rather a nice one.

"Really, I hardly know which are my own hands and which are yours, they
have got so mixed up together," she said, withdrawing her own very
suddenly.

"It doesn't matter at all," said Dick, "at least as far as I am
concerned."

"There! no towel! Whoever thinks of a towel till the hands are wet?"

"Nobody."

"'Nobody.' How very dull it is when people are so friendly! Come here,
Mr. Dewy. Now do you think you could lift the lid of that box with your
elbow, and then, with something or other, take out a towel you will find
under the clean clothes? Be sure don't touch any of them with your wet
hands, for the things at the top are all S