retty."

"I don't suppose they taste any better for that," remarked Miriam.

"Perhaps not," said the other, "but I like to see things to eat look
pretty." And she did her best to shape the little rolls into such
forms that they might please the eye of Mr. Ralph as well as satisfy
his palate.

Miriam went up to the dining-room to arrange the table. While doing this
she saw Ralph approaching from the barn. In the kitchen, below, Dora,
glancing out of the window, also saw him coming, and pulling her
sunbonnet well forward, she applied herself more earnestly to her work.
Ralph came in, tired and warm, and threw himself down on a long
horse-hair sofa in the hall.

"Heigh ho, Miriam," he cried; "hay-making is a jolly thing, all the world
over, but I have had enough of it for to-day. How are you getting on,
little one? Don't put yourself to too much trouble about my supper. Only
give me enough of whatever you have; that is all I ask."

"Ralph," said Miriam, standing gravely by him, "I did not have to get
supper all by myself; there is a new girl in the kitchen."

"Good," cried Ralph; "I am very glad to hear that. When did she come?"

"This afternoon," said Miriam, "and she is cooking supper now. But,
Ralph," she continued, "there is hardly any wood in the kitchen. We
have--she has used up nearly all that was brought in this morning."

"Well," said Ralph, "there is plenty of it cut, in the woodhouse."

"But, Ralph," said Miriam, "I don't like to ask her to go after the wood,
herself, and some is needed now."

"Mike is just as busy as he can be down at the barn," said her brother,
"and I cannot call him now. If you show her the woodhouse, she can get
what she wants with very little trouble, and Mike will bring in a lot of
it to-night."

"But, Ralph," persisted his sister, "I don't want to ask her to stop her
cooking and go out and get wood. It does not look like good management,
for one thing, and for other reasons I do not want to do it. Don't you
think you could bring her some wood? Just a little basketful of short
sticks will do."

Ralph sat up and knitted his brows. "Miriam," said he, "if your new cook
is the right sort of a woman, she ought to be able to help herself in
emergencies of this kind, with the woodhouse not a dozen yards from the
kitchen. But as she is a stranger to the place, and I don't want to
discourage anybody who comes to help you, I will get some wood for her,
but I must say that it does not