g myself ready to go out and feed a calf. Will you walk
into the parlor?"

"Oh, no," cried Dora, "let me go with you to feed the calf; I shall like
that ever so much better."

"It can wait just as well as not," said Miriam; "we can sit in the hall,
if you like," and she moved toward an old-fashioned sofa which stood
against the wall; as she did so, she stepped on the front of her
voluminous silk gown, and came near falling.

"The horrid old thing!" she exclaimed; "I am always tripping over it,"
and as she glanced at Dora the two girls broke into a laugh. "I expect
you think I look like a perfect guy," she said, as they seated
themselves, "and so I do, but you see the calf is not much more than a
week old, and its mother has entirely deserted it, and kicks and horns at
it if it comes near her. It got to be so weak it could scarcely stand up,
and I have adopted it, and feed it out of this bottle. The first time I
did it I nearly ruined the dress I had on, and so I went to the garret
and got this old gown, which covers me up very well, though it looks
dreadfully, and is awfully awkward."

"To whom did it belong?" asked Dora. "It is made in such a queer
way,--not like really old-fashioned things."

"I am sure I don't know to whom it belonged," said Miriam. "There are
all sorts of things in our garret,--except things that are good for some
particular purpose,--and this old gown was the best I could find to
cover me up. It looks funny, but then the whole of it is
funny,--calf-feeding and all."

"Why do you have to make your own bread?" asked Dora. "Don't
Phoebe do that?"

"Oh, Phoebe isn't here now. She went away nearly a week ago, and I do all
the work. I went to Thorbury and engaged a woman to come here; but, as
that was three days ago and she has not come yet, I think she must have
changed her mind."

"But why did Phoebe leave you?" exclaimed Miss Bannister. "She ought to
be ashamed of herself, to leave you without any one to help you."

"Well," replied Miriam "she said she wasn't regularly employed, anyway,
and there were plenty of cooks in the town that I could get, and that she
was obliged to go. You see, the colored church in Thorbury has just got a
new minister, and he has to board somewhere; and as soon as Phoebe heard
that, she made up her mind to take a house and board him; and she did it
before anybody else could get the chance. Mike, her husband, who works
for us, talked to her and we talked to her, bu