family and farm hands with milk
and butter, and, since the cows had been bought in spring, the one
serving girl had accomplished this amount of dairy work satisfactorily.
The day after Sophia and Harold had made their evening excursion through
the Harmon house, this maid by reason of some ailment was laid up, and
the cows became for the first time a difficulty to the household, for
the art of milking was not to be learnt in an hour, and it had not yet
been acquired by any member of the Rexford family.

Harold was of course in the fields. Sophia went to the village to see if
she could induce anyone to come to their aid; but, hard as it was to
obtain service at any time, in the weeks of harvest it was an
impossibility. When she returned, she went in by the lane, the yard, and
the kitchen door. All the family had fallen into the habit of using this
door more than any other. Such habits speak for themselves.

"Mamma!"--she took off her gloves energetically as she spoke--"there is
nothing for it but to ask Louise to get up and do the milking--the mere
milking--and I will carry the pails."

Louise was the pale-faced Canadian servant. She often told them she
preferred to be called "Loulou," but in this she was not indulged.

Mrs. Rexford stirred Dottie's porridge in a small saucepan. Said she,
"When Gertrude Bennett is forced to milk her cows, she waits till after
dark; her mother told me so in confidence. Yes, child, yes"--this was to
Dottie who, beginning to whimper, put an end to the conversation.

Sophia did not wait till after dark: it might be an excellent way for
Miss Bennett, but it was not her way. Neither did she ask her younger
sisters to help her, for she knew that if caught in the act by any
acquaintance the girls were at an age to feel an acute distress. She
succeeded, by the administration of tea and tonic, in coaxing the
servant to perform her part. Having slightly caught up her skirts and
taken the empty pails on her arms, Sophia started ahead down the lane.

Just then some one turned in from the road. It was Eliza, and she was
in too much haste to take heed of the milking gear.

"Oh, Miss Sophia. I'm so glad I've met you, and alone. We've been so
busy at the hotel with a cheap excursion, I've been trying all day to
get a word to you. Look here!" (she thrust some crumpled letters into
Sophia's hand) "I thought you'd better see those, and say something to
the girls. They'll get themselves into trouble if