ut flour for a cup-cake. With the book spread
out before him, Freddie was lying flat on his stomach on the floor, with
his little heels contentedly kicking the air. His attitude was the
expression of the acme of childish satisfaction.

Miss Prime's idea of floors was that they were to be walked on,
scrubbed, measured, and carpeted; she did not remember in all the extent
of her experience to have seen one used as a reading-desk before. But
she withdrew without a word: the child was quiet, and that was much.

About this time, any one observing the cottage would have seen an
old-fashioned phaeton, to which a plump old nag was hitched, driven up
to the door and halted, and a man alight and enter at the gate. If the
observer had been at Margaret's funeral, he would instantly have
recognised the man as the Rev. Mr. Simpson's assistant, Mr. Hodges. The
man walked deliberately around to the kitchen, and, tapping at the door,
opened it without ceremony and went in, calling out, "Miss Hester, Miss
Hester, I 'm a-runnin' right in on you."

"I do declare, 'Liphalet Hodges, you do beat all fur droppin' in on a
body at unexpected times."

"Well, I guess you 're right. My comin' 's a good deal like the second
comin' o' the Son o' man 'll be. I guess you 're right."

To Miss Prime, Eliphalet Hodges was always unexpected, although he had
been dropping in this way before her mother and father died, twenty
years gone.

"Well, I 'low, 'Liphalet, that you 've heerd the news."

"There ain't no grass grows under the feet of the talkers in this town,
I tell you."

"Dear me! a body can't turn aroun' without settin' a whole forest of
tongues a-waggin' every which way."

"Oh, well, Miss Hester, we got to 'low that to yore sex. The women folks
must talk."

"My sex! It ain't my sex only: I know plenty o' men in this town who air
bigger gossips 'n the women. I 'll warrant you did n't git this piece o'
news from no woman."

"Well, mebbe I did n't, but I ca'c'late there wa'n't no men there to git
it fust hand."

"Oh, I 'll be bound some o' the women had to go an' tell a man the fust
thing: some women can't git along without the men."

"An' then, ag'in, some of 'em kin, Miss Hester; some of 'em kin."

"You 'd jest as well start out an' say what you want to say without
a-beatin' about the bush. I know, jest as well as I know I 'm a-livin',
that you 've come to tell me that I was a fool fur takin' that child.
'Liphalet, don't pertend: I