tacked to the beams overhead for a ceiling. The smoke from
the cookstove had stained it to a deep brown color above the stove and
to a lighter, meerschaum shade in the corners.

The furniture was of the rudest plainest kind much of it evidently
home-made. Uncle Henry was not unhandy with tools. She learned, later,
that he and the boys had practically built the house by themselves. They
were finishing it inside, as they had time. In some of the rooms the
inside window and door frames were not yet in place.

There was an appetizing smell from the pots upon the stove, and the
long table was set for dinner. They would not let Nan change from her
traveling dress before sitting down to the table. Tom and Rafe came in
and all three men washed at the long, wooden sink.

Rafe was of slighter build than his brother, and a year or more younger.
He was not so shy as Tom, either; and his eyes sparkled with mischief.
Nan found that she could not act "grown up" with her Cousin Rafe.

The principal dish for dinner was venison stew, served with vegetables
and salt-rising bread. There was cake, too, very heavy and indigestible,
and speckled with huckleberries that had been dried the fall previous.
Aunt Kate was no fancy cook; but appetite is the best sauce, after all,
and Nan had her share of that condiment.

During the meal there was not much conversation save about the wonderful
fortune that had fallen to Nan's mother and the voyage she and her
husband were taking to Scotland to secure it. Nan learned, too, that
Uncle Henry had telegraphed from Tillbury of Nan's coming to Pine Camp,
and consequently Aunt Kate was able to prepare for her.

And that the good woman had done her best to make a nest for her little
niece in the ugly house, Nan was assured. After dinner she insisted upon
the girl's going to the east room to change her dress and lie down. The
comparison between this great chamber and Nan's pretty room at home was
appalling.

The room had been plastered, but the plaster was of a gray color and
unfinished. The woodwork was painted a dusty, brick red with mineral
paint. The odd and ugly pieces of furniture horrified Nan. The drugget
on the floor only served to hide a part of the still more atrociously
patterned carpet. The rocking chair complained if one touched it. The
top of the huge maple dresser was as bald as one's palm.

Nan sat down on the unopened trunk when her aunt had left her. She
dabbed her eyes with her hand