p and finally another.

"You like coffee, don't you?" she said.

"This fine coffee."

"We send away for it. The village coffee is not good."

"I never tasted the like before."

"If you will answer me a question," said Billie suddenly, "I will get my
father to send you enough of this coffee to last all winter."

The old woman picked up the coffee pot and drained it to the last drop.

"If I tell," she said, warmed and stimulated by the hot drink, "it make
lot trouble."

"Trouble for whom?"

"Much trouble for all."

"All I am to say to Phoebe then is that her father is in good hands and
she is not to look for him?"

The herb-gatherer nodded.

"How soon will he be coming back?"

She shook her head and seizing her staff, rose to go.

"Are you a friend of the Lupos?"

There was no answer. Billie tried again.

"Did Mrs. Lupo ever go back to her husband?"

"Lupo very angry. She not go back."

"She needn't stay away on our account. My cousin forgave her long ago."

"I go now," announced the old woman, not taking the slightest notice of
Billie's remarks.

"I am very much obliged to you for the news of Phoebe's father. Every
time you bring us any news, you may have coffee, and if you show us
where he is,--quite secretly, you know,--you shall have a great deal of
coffee and money, too."

"I go now," repeated the strange old creature, pretending not to
understand Billie's offer, and she promptly took her leave without
another word.

Billie gathered up the tray and the coffee things and carried them into
the kitchen.

"It looks like rain, Alberdina. I think we had better eat indoors
to-night," she said.

Something, perhaps the east wind charged with wet, had made her feel
dispirited and uneasy. She was homesick for her father and she wished
that Dr. Hume had not gone away. She almost wished they had never set
eyes on Phoebe and her father at all. How complicated life had suddenly
become! They were just a party of well-meaning campers taking a summer
holiday on the mountainside, meaning no harm to anybody on earth; and
having done a little kindness to a poor girl and her half-crazed father,
they had obtained the enmity of an entire village. How cruel and
ignorant these people were! How warped and uncharitable!

"Have Percy and Ben got back yet?" asked Nancy, appearing at the door of
the lean-to in a fresh blue linen dress, her hair all dewy from her
bath, her eyes bright and clear from the long rest.