'Now then,' said she, 'you can take your hoss out of the cab and put this
hoss in, and you can drive her till your hoss gets well, and durin' that
time I'll walk.'

"Well, of course I didn't do that, and I took my hoss back to the stable,
and my family didn't starve nuther; but I just tell you this to show you
what sort of a woman Miss Panney is."

"I should think she was a very estimable person," said Mrs. Drane.

"Oh, there's nothin' the matter with her estimation," said Andy. "That's
level enough. I only told you that to show you how you can always expect
her to turn up unexpected."

"Mrs. Brinkly spoke of Miss Panney," said Cicely; "she said that she was
the first one to come and see her about rooms for us."

"That was certainly very kind," said Mrs. Drane, "considering that she
does not know us at all, except through Dr. Tolbridge. I remember his
speaking of her."

"That place over there," said Andy, "you can jest see the tops of the
chimneys, that's called Cobhurst; that's where old Matthias Butterwood
used to live. It was an awful big house for one man, but he was queer.
There's nobody livin' there now but two young people, sort of temporary,
I guess, though the place belongs to 'em. I don't think they are any too
well off. They don't give us hack-drivers much custom, never havin' any
friends comin' or goin', or trunks or anything. He's got no other
business, they say, and don't know no more about farmin' than a potato
knows about preachin'. There's nothin' on the place that amounts to
anything except the barn. There's a wonderful barn there, that old
Butterwood spent nobody knows how much money on, and he a bachelor. You
can't see the barn from here, but I'll drive you where you can get a good
look at it."

In a few minutes, he made a turn, and whipped up his horse to a better
speed, and before Mrs. Drane and her daughter could comprehend the state
of affairs, they were rolling over a not very well kept private road, and
approaching the front of a house.

"Where are you going, driver?" exclaimed Mrs. Drane, leaning forward in
astonishment.

Andy turned his beaming countenance upon her, and flourished his whip.

"Oh, I'm just goin' to drive round the side of the house," he said; "at
the back there's a little knoll where we can stop, and you can see the
whole of the barn with the three ways of gittin' into it, one for each
story." At that moment they rolled past the front piazza on which were
Miriam a