nervously at the
tall clock for the twentieth time. "I guess everything 's done. I've
tacked up two thick towels back of her washstand and put a mat under
her slop-jar; but children are awful hard on furniture. I expect we
sha'n't know this house a year from now."

Jane's frame of mind was naturally depressed and timorous, having been
affected by Miranda's gloomy presages of evil to come. The only
difference between the sisters in this matter was that while Miranda
only wondered how they could endure Rebecca, Jane had flashes of
inspiration in which she wondered how Rebecca would endure them. It was
in one of these flashes that she ran up the back stairs to put a vase
of apple blossoms and a red tomato-pincushion on Rebecca's bureau.

The stage rumbled to the side door of the brick house, and Mr. Cobb
handed Rebecca out like a real lady passenger. She alighted with great
circumspection, put the bunch of faded flowers in her aunt Miranda's
hand, and received her salute; it could hardly be called a kiss without
injuring the fair name of that commodity.

"You needn't 'a' bothered to bring flowers," remarked that gracious and
tactful lady; "the garden 's always full of 'em here when it comes
time."

Jane then kissed Rebecca, giving a somewhat better imitation of the
real thing than her sister. "Put the trunk in the entry, Jeremiah, and
we'll get it carried upstairs this afternoon," she said.

"I'll take it up for ye now, if ye say the word, girls."

"No, no; don't leave the horses; somebody'll be comin' past, and we can
call 'em in."

"Well, good-by, Rebecca; good-day, Mirandy 'n' Jane. You've got a
lively little girl there. I guess she'll be a first-rate company
keeper."

Miss Sawyer shuddered openly at the adjective "lively" as applied to a
child; her belief being that though children might be seen, if
absolutely necessary, they certainly should never be heard if she could
help it. "We're not much used to noise, Jane and me," she remarked
acidly.

Mr. Cobb saw that he had taken the wrong tack, but he was too unused to
argument to explain himself readily, so he drove away, trying to think
by what safer word than "lively" he might have described his
interesting little passenger.

"I'll take you up and show you your room, Rebecca," Miss Miranda said.
"Shut the mosquito nettin' door tight behind you, so 's to keep the
flies out; it ain't flytime yet, but I want you to start right; take
your passel along with ye