sponded Mrs. Dodd, "I can see that I've upset you some.
Perhaps you're one of them people that don't like to have other folks
around you. I've heard of such, comin' from the city. Why, I knew a woman
that lived in the city, an' she said she didn't know the name of the woman
next door to her after livin' there over eight months,--an' their windows
lookin' right into each other, too."

"I hate people!" cried Dorothy, in a passion of anger. "I don't want
anybody here but my husband and Mrs. Smithers!"

"Set quiet, my dear, an' make your mind easy. I'm sure Ebeneezer never
intended his death to make any difference in my spendin' the Summer here,
especially when I'm fresh from another bereavement, but if you're in
earnest about closin' your doors on your poor dead aunt's relations, why
I'll see what I can do."

"Oh, if you could!" Dorothy almost screamed the words. "If you can keep
any more people from coming here, I'll bless you for ever."

"Poor child, I can see that you're considerable upset. Just get me the pen
an' ink an' some paper an' envelopes an' I'll set down right now an' write
to the connection an' tell 'em that Ebeneezer's dead an' bein' of unsound
mind at the last has willed the house to strangers who refuse to open
their doors to the blood relations of poor dead Rebecca. That's all I can
do an' I can't promise that it'll work. Ebeneezer writ several times to us
all that he didn't feel like havin' no more company, but Rebecca's
relatives was all of a forgivin' disposition an' never laid it up against
him. We all kep' on a-comin' just the same."

"Tell them," cried Dorothy her eyes unusually bright and her cheeks
burning, "that we've got smallpox here, or diphtheria, or a lunatic
asylum, or anything you like. Tell them there's a big dog in the yard that
won't let anybody open the gate. Tell them anything!"

"Just you leave it all to me, my dear," said Mrs. Dodd, soothingly. "On
account of the connection bein' so differently constituted, I'll have to
tell 'em all different. Disease would keep away some an' fetch others.
Betsey Skiles, now, she feels to turn her hand to nursin' an' I've knowed
her to go miles in the dead of Winter to set up with a stranger that had
some disease she wa'n't familiar with. Dogs would bring others an' only
scare a few. Just you leave it all to me. There ain't never no use in
borrerin' trouble an' givin' up your peace of mind as security, 'cause you
don't never get the security ba