chickens for you, and bring things up out of the cellar. What on earth
made anybody put a cave as far from the kitchen door as that for is more
than I can see," he said, taking vengeance on the first unpleasant feature
of her circumstances that presented itself.

Hugh did not at all understand why she was sick and unequal to the demands
made upon her strength, but he did see that she was so, and that her tired
young face wore a discouraged expression.

"I'll take Jack with me; that'll help some," he said as an afterthought.

"If you would----" The relief in her voice told the strain it was upon her
to work and watch the toddling child. "I'll tell you--hurry back and tack
this carpet down for me. I'll have the room and closet straightened up so
that you can do it by then."

She wiped Jack's dirty face with the end of a towel she thrust into the
water pitcher on the washstand and sent him off with a kiss to the welcome
ride. As she worked after they were gone, she ran over in her mind the
supplies on hand for the feeding of fifteen men on such short notice.
Threshing and corn-shelling meant hard work to the men who followed the
business, but it meant feasting and festivity as well, and it was with the
prospect of much cooking on the morrow that Elizabeth furrowed her
forehead, and hurried with the replacing of the contents of the closet.
There was a sponge to be set to-night and bread to bake to-morrow; there
was a cake to be baked, beans picked over and set to soak, and dried fruit
to stew; also, and what was more annoying, she had let the churning run
over for twenty-four hours in order to finish her cleaning.

"If I can't get around to that churning, I'll just let it go if it does
sour," she decided at last.

When Hugh came back she set him to work at the carpet and went to the
kitchen to look after things there. Nathan had offered to keep Jack when
he heard of the unexpected work his mother was going to have thrust upon
her, and Hugh, remembering Elizabeth's relieved expression when he had
offered to bring the child, was only too glad to leave him in such good
hands.

"How long is that child going to stay at Hornby's?" John demanded the next
morning. He set the heavy cream jar on the table and faced Elizabeth, who
was kneading the bread on the big bread-board which rested on the top of
the flour barrel.

"I don't know--till Uncle Nate gets time to bring him home to-day, I
suppose."

Elizabeth did not look